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THE   I'ULK  H   FOLLOW   RIDDLE'S  CL"E 


THE  NEW 
NORTHLAND 


BY 
L.  P.  GRATACAP 


WITH  16  DESIGNS 

BY 
ALBERT  OPERTI 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  BENTON 

1915 


COPYRIGHT  1915 

BY 
L.  P.  GRATACAP 


PRINTED   BY 
THE  EDDY  PRESS  CORPORATION,   CUMBERLAND,    MD. 


KROCKER  LAND 

A  ROMANCE  OF 
DISCOVERY 


BY 

ALFRED   ERICKSON 

PROF.   HLMATH   BJORNSEN 

ANTOINE   GORITZ 

SPRUCE    HOPKINS 


THE  NARRATIVE  BY 
ALFRED  ERICKSON 


EDITED  BY 
AZAZIEL  LINK 


CONTENTS 

Preface  (Editorial  Note) 7 

Chapter         I    The  Fiord 39 

Chapter       II    Point  Barrow 63 

Chapter     III    On  the  Ice  Pack 89 

Chapter      IV  Krocker  Land  Rim  -     -     -     -   116 

Chapter       V  The  Perpetual  Nimbus  -     -     -  141 

Chapter      VI  The  Crocodilo-Python  -     -     -   162 

Chapter    VII    The  Deer  Pels 184 

Chapter  VIII  The  Pine  Tree  Gredin    -     -     -  203 

Chapter      IX  The  Valley  of  Rasselas  -     -     -  228 

Chapter       X    Radiumopolis -  246 

Chapter      XI  The  Crater  of  Everlasting  Light  271 

Chapter    XII  The  Pool  of  Oblation     -     -     -  288 

Chapter  XIII  Love  and  Liberty      -     -     -     -  308 

Chapter  XIV    Goritz's  Death  and  the  Gold 

Makers 332 

Chapter    XV    My  Escape 348 

Chapter  XVI    The  Sequel 376 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

The  Police  Follow  Riddles*  Cue  (Frontispiece)  28 

The  Fiord 39 

The  Professor  and  the  Pribylof  Seals  -     -     -  69 

On  the  Ice  Pack .     .     .     .  98 

Krocker  Land  Rim 131 

The  Perpetual  Nimbus      - 158 

The  Crocodilo-Python  and  the  Wild  Pig  -     -  180 

The  Deer  Fels     -     -     -     - 190 

The  Pine  Tree  Gredin 215 

Meeting  the  Radiumopolites  ------  226 

The  Valley  of  Rasselas 239 

Ziliah  and  Her  Father -  292 

The  Pool  of  Oblation    -     - 300 

Goritz's  Death 334 

Erickson's  Escape 375 

Erickson's  Rescue 382 


EDITORIAL  NOTE 


This  remarkable  narrative  of  Arctic  exploration 
is  itself  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  wisdom  of 
that  tireless  hunt  for  NEWS  which  has  become 
second  nature  to  the  newspaper  man,  and  while 
distinctively  a  mark  of  his  calling,  has  attached  to 
his  profession  the  opprobrium  of  "yellowness." 
The  appropriation  of  this  color — so  intimately 
associated  in  nature  with  the  golden  illumination 
of  the  noon,  the  royal  charm  of  lilies,  and  the 
enduring  lure  of  gold — to  designate  an  irresponsible 
and  shameless  sensationalism  has  never  been  ade- 
quately explained.  The  "yellowness"  of  the  live 
journalist,  turning  with  an  instinctive  scent  to 
follow  to  its  end  every  new  trail  of  incident, 
sniffing  in  each  passing  rumor  the  presence  of 
hidden  and  serviceable  scandal,  and  ruthlessly 
breaking  through  the  sham  obstruction  of  modesty 
to  snatch  the  culprit  or  to  free  the  victim,  cannot 
certainly  be  referred  to  the  torpor  marked  by  the 
jaundice  of  the  invalid,  nor  to  the  weakness  of  the 
last  stages  of  an  emaciating  fever.  Perhaps  if  the 
reproach  is  to  be  made,  or  can  be  made,  intelligible, 
the  yellow  color  finds  its  subtle  analogue  in  a  mus- 
tard plaster. 

That  popular  cataplasm  has  a  dignified  and 
ancient  history,  and  is  gratefully  recorded  in  litera- 
ture for  nearly  two  thousand  years  as  a  contrarient 
of  value,  allaying  hidden  aches  through  the  excoria- 
tion of  the  uninjured  and  painless  surfaces.     The 


8  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

process  seems  to  involve  an  injustice  in  principle, 
but  it  is,  in  spite  of  abstractions,  a  beneficent 
practice.  The  "yellowness"  of  newspapers  may 
amaze  modesty,  startle  discretion,  and  afflict  inno- 
cence, but  it  cures  interior  disorders,  and  the  un- 
pleasantness of  an  ulcerated  or  inflamed  skin  should 
be  condoned  or  forgotten  for  the  benefit  of  a  regu- 
lated stomach  or  a  renovated  joint. 

However,  this  all  en  passant,  as  only  remotely, 
and  yet  diffidently,  related  to  the  manner  of  my 
obtaining  the  circumstances  and  facts  of  the  fol- 
lowing adventure.  I  have  attributed  my  success 
to  the  pertinacity  of  instinct  and  the  olfactory 
sense  of  mischief.  It  is  true.  Without  one  or  the 
other — though  the  combination  of  both  rendered 
failure  impossible — I  might  not  now  be  in  the 
enviable  position  of  proclaiming  a  "beat"  on  my 
professional  rivals  which  no  amount  of  editorial 
venom,  aspersion,  contempt  and  innuendo  will 
ever  obliterate  from  the  annals  of  journalism,  as 
unprecedented. 

I  am  indeed  afflicted  at  moments  with  a  sort  of 
discomfiture  over  my  own  modesty  in  not  having 
ransacked  to  better  advantage  the  commercial 
possibilities  of  my  tenacity  and  acumen.  Incred- 
ible and  hypnotizing  as  is  this  story  of  Mr.  Alfred 
Erickson,  as  a  foil  to  its  romantic  daring  and  its 
transcendent  interest,  the  brief  relation  of  the 
episode — and  its  development — that  led  to  its 
publication,  has  a  delightful  thrill  of  excitement, 
and  an  up-to-date  volubility,  so  to  speak,  of  inci- 
dent, that  frames  the  story  in  the  most  exhilarating 
contrasts. 

An  office  boy,  a  temporary  expedient  for  a 
messenger  and  page.  Jack  Riddles,  mercurial, 
vagarious,  and  quick-witted,  a  sandy  haired,  long- 
limbed,  peaked-nosed  and  weazel-eyed  creation, 
with  flattened  cheeks,  whose  jackets  were  always 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  9 

short,  and  whose  trousers  despised  any  intimacy 
with  the  tops  of  his  shoes,  got  me  the  story. 

Jack  is  destined  for  great  things  in  our  metropoli- 
tan annals.  In  the  mission  of  the  Progressive 
party,  with  its  millenial  attachments,  Jack  and  his 
sort  would  be  progressively  eliminated.  Crime 
exists  for  detection,  and  detection  is  Life  at  its  nth 
power  for  such  as  he.  Jack  is  endowed  with  a  rare 
intuition  of  ways  and  means  when  the  center  of  a 
reportorial  mystery  is  to  be  perforated,  and  the 
process  of  "getting  there"  to  him  is  as  inevitable 
as  the  first  half  of  the  alphabet.  Riddle's  only 
counterpart  was  Octavius  Guy,  alias  Gooseberry, 
Lawyer  Bruflf's  boy  in  Wilkie  Collin's  story  of  the 
Moonstone. 

He  began  his  exploit  on  the  top  of  a  Fifth  Avenue 
'bus,  and  it  was  about  the  middle  of  September, 
1912.  Jack  has  a  Hogarthian  sense  for  the  multi- 
tudinous, the  psychological,  the  junction  of  cir- 
cumstance and  expression  in  revealing  a  plot  or 
betraying  a  criminal.  To  hang  over  the  railing  of  a 
Fifth  Avenue  'bus  and  watch  the  crowds,  the  motor 
cars,  each  vibratory  shock,  as  the  behemoth  shivers 
and  plunges,  bringing  your  interpretative  eye 
unexpectedly  into  a  new  relation  with  the  faces  of 
that  ceremonious  throng,  was  intoxication  for  Jack. 
It  evoked  exuberantly  the  passion  of  espionage. 
There  was  indeed  concealment  here,  in  the  packed 
and  methodical  progression  of  people  and  people, 
and  yet  more  people.  Yet  with  an  average  dumb- 
ness or  dullness,  or  just  the  homogeneous  stare  of 
business,  or  the  vapid  contentment  of  contiguity  to 
riches  and  fashion,  Jack  caught  glimpses,  direct, 
profound,  of  dismay  or  discontent;  of  the  pallid, 
revolting  grimace  of  suffering,  the  snarl  of  envy,  or 
the  deeper  placidity  of  crime. 

They  were  rare,  but  Jack  watched  for  them;  his 
precocity  ran  that  way  and  he  was  rewarded.     It 


10  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

used  up  his  dimes,  it  widened  the  solutions  of  con- 
tinuity in  his  nether  garments  and  brought  his  feet 
more  familiarly  in  contact  with  the  hard  flagging. 
Some  supersensual  instinct  urged  him.  The  suc- 
ceeding story  attests  the  splendor  of  the  revelation 
he  uncovered.  Jack  may  have  been  about  eighteen 
years  of  age. 

It  was  opposite  the  Public  Library,  just  below 
Forty-second  Street  on  Fifth  Avenue  and  on  the 
west  side  of  that  thoroughfare  that  Jack's  eyes, 
after  a  long  stop  which  held  up  an  endless  phalanx 
of  automobiles,  fell  upon  a  man  and  woman  who 
conveyed  to  his  thought  a  hint  of  crime.  The 
woman  was  beautiful  too,  a  Spanish  siren,  full  in 
form,  with  developed  curves  that  yielded  so  slightly 
to  the  sway  of  her  tight  fitting  mauve  dress  as  to 
start  the  conjecture  that  she  did  not  belong  to  the 
more  rarified  types  of  Venuses.  A  light  feather 
boa,  deliciously  pearly  gray  in  tone,  heightened  the 
carnation  of  her  cheeks.  These  in  turn  yielded  to 
the  orbed  splendor  of  her  eyes,  and  that  to  the 
wealth  of  black  hair  darkly  globed  underneath  a 
maroon  velvet  turban-like  cap,  in  whose  folds 
twinkled  a  firmament  of  greenish  stars.  Jack 
literally  devoured  her  radiance,  so  near  was  he  to 
her  as  she  descended  with  her  companion  the  last 
terrace  to  the  sidewalk  between  the  amorphous 
lions  of  the  Public  Library. 

The  man  with  her  was  inordinately,  insolently 
handsome,  dark  and  tall,  dressed  a  little  beyond  the 
form  of  reticence,  as  was  the  woman.  Herein 
perhaps  lurked  the  confession  of  their  mutual  de- 
pravity to  Jack,  an  untutored  psychologist;  to 
all  besides  it  appealed  as  a  momentary  sensation,  to 
some  as  barely  an  infringement  of  good  taste. 

The  man  wore  a  light  fedora  hat  that  suited  the 
bravado  of  his  curled  and  graceful  moustache,  the 
ovate  outlines  of  his  face,  his  liquid,  voluptuous 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  11 

eyes,  the  sensuous  thickness  of  his  lips.  Observa- 
tion stopped  short  at  his  face  where  he  intended  it 
should.  Its  arrest  was  made  imperative  by  a  blue 
and  ormolu  tie,  relieved  against  a  softly-tinted 
yellow  shirt,  carrying  a  horseshoe  of  demantoid 
garnets  in  a  wreath  of  little  diamonds.  His  feet 
were  incased  in  tan  gaiters,  a  permissible  distrac- 
tion. For  an  instant  only  the  spectator  was  re- 
warded with  an  appreciation  of  their  admirable 
tournure.  Otherwise  he  was  in  black,  relieved  by 
the  white  lining  at  the  lapels  of  his  coat,  and  he 
carried  a  cane  in  his  gloved  hand. 

It  was  a  few  instants  after  Jack's  ravished  eyes 
had  fastened  on  this  entrancing  couple,  that  the 
cane  was  raised  sharply  in  the  air  to  descend 
abruptly  on  the  woman's  head.  The  attack 
involved  the  man's  slight  retreat — a  backward 
gesture — and  his  turning  aside,  whereby  his  profile 
cut  keenly  across  the  sunlit  stone  behind  him,  and 
Jack  was  shocked  into  a  delighted  recognition  of 
the  same  profile  in  a  print  in  the  show  window  of 
Krauschaar's  gallery.  He  remembered  the  title; 
it  was  "Mephistopheles,  A  Modern  Guise  of  an  Old 
Offender" ;  a  smiling,  swarthy  beau  at  the  feet  of  a 
remonstrating  and  beautiful  ingenue. 

The  explosion  was  evidently  the  climax  of  an 
altercation.  Jack  recalled  the  previous  animated 
demeanor  of  the  couple.  Explanatory  reflections 
were  cut  short  by  the  velocity  of  the  woman's 
defense.  She  flung  herself  on  the  man,  caught  his 
arms  with  her  outstretched  hands,  and  kicked  him 
viciously.  Infuriated,  he  tore  himself  away,  raised 
the  cane  and  the  next  moment  would  have  inflicted 
a  harsher  insult  on  the  defiant  Amazon,  into  whose 
face,  so  Jack  thought,  had  sprung  a  tigerish  fury, 
when,  from  the  stupified  and  expectant  crowd  before 
them,  half  shrinking  and  half  j  ubilant,  shot  a  tall  fig- 
ure, whose  interposition  transfixed  both  contestants. 


12  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

This  meteoric  stranger  was  remarkable  for  his 
broad  shoulders,  and  a  peculiar  taper  in  his  frame 
downward  to  his  feet,  that  made  him  figuratively  a 
human  top,  the  impression  of  any  actual  deformity 
arising  from  his  immense  chest,  on  which,  by  a 
connection  scarcely  deserving  consideration  as  a 
neck,  sat  his  squat,  contracted  head.  Prodigious 
whiskers  covered  his  face,  invading  his  high  cheeks 
almost  to  the  outer  limits  of  his  sunken  eyes. 

This  hirsute  prodigality  contrasted  with  his 
cropped  cranium  and  his  closely  shaven  lips.  The 
latter  were  long  and  thin-compressed,  they  seemed 
to  separate  his  chin  from  the  rest  of  his  face  by  a 
red  seam.  His  forehead  was  low  and  his  head  was 
covered  with  a  steamer-tourist's  cap.  His  clothes 
were  of  plaid. 

As  he  rushed  between  the  wranglers  he  caught 
each  by  the  shoulder,  and  he  pushed  them  apart. 
He  had  turned  toward  the  avenue,  facing  the  won- 
dering throng,  and  Jack  heard  him  speak  quickly 
and  sharply,  but  in  a  guttural,  obscured  way  that 
suggested  something  that  was  not  English  or,  if  it 
was,  it  was  hopelessly  incoherent  to  Jack's  ears 
from  its  imperfect  articulation. 

The  man  and  woman  seemed  stunned  into  im- 
mobility, and  then  obeying  his  gesture,  followed 
him  on  the  sidewalk,  jostled  and  pressed  by  the 
crowd  which  at  first,  inquisitive  but  timorous,  had 
recoiled  a  little  from  the  enigmatical  encounter  and 
then,  almost  obstreperous  and  decidedly  interested 
engulfed  the  trio,  who  however  pushed  their  way 
through,  energetically  piloted  by  the  stranger. 
How  quickly  a  drama  evolves! 

All  three  had  almost  simultaneously  stepped  into 
the  little  scenario,  and  yet  by  the  illusion  of  an 
assumed  sequence  the  last  actor  seemed  a  novelty, 
related  as  unexpected,  to  the  other  two,  as  more 
familiar  and  apparent.     None  of  the  three  spoke. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  13 

nor  did  they  heed  the  interruption  of  the  spectators 
who  tardily  parted  to  let  them  pass.  The  moment 
Forty-second  Street  was  reached  the  leader  turned 
toward  Sixth  Avenue.  Jack  standing  on  the  roof  of 
the  'bus,  which  slowly  swung  off  into  the  restored 
movement  northward  as  the  obstruction  some- 
where ahead  disappeared,  saw  them  enter  an  auto- 
mobile opposite  the  northern  entrance  to  the 
library  and  dash  westward. 

Jack  did  not  argue  the  matter  with  himself.  He 
had  no  compunctions.  He  jumped  straight  for  the 
to  him  (as  perhaps  to  anyone)  tangible  certainty 
that  he  had  struck  a  trail  of  iniquity.  But  how  to 
follow  it?  His  ruminations  were  cut  short  by  the 
loud  honk  of  an  automobile  and  there,  returning  to 
Fifth  Avenue  at  Fiftieth  Street,  he  saw  the  yellow 
limousine  which  contained  the  suspects  wheeling 
into  the  procession  and,  forced  by  the  unrelieved 
pressure  to  relax  its  impatience,  moving  with  the 
limping  concourse  at  the  same  pace. 

Jack  watched  it  eagerly.  His  eyes  never  left  it. 
It  swayed  a  little  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  as  the 
driver,  probably  under  threats  or  persuasion,  en- 
deavored to  insert  his  vehicle  into  the  chance 
spaces  that  opened  before  him.  This  irregular  and 
tentative  progress  brought  the  automobile  at  length 
directly  alongside  of  the  'bus  which  had  on  it  the 
Nemesis  of  its  (the  automobile's)  occupants.  It 
was  underneath  Jack's  very  eyes;  he  could  have 
dropped  on  its  roof  almost  unnoticed.  Jack's 
heart  beat  with  trip-hammer  throbs,  and  his  mind 
rehearsed  the  possibilities  of  murder,  arson,  burgla- 
ry, brigandage,  kidnapping,  etc.,  gathering  head- 
way in  that  uncanny  conference  going  on  there 
below  under  that  burnished  but  impenetrable  roof. 
But  he  was  exulting  too  with  the  steel-clad  cer- 
tainty of  having  a  "case,"  and  that  a  little  inten- 
sive use  of  his  wits  would  promote  him  from  the 


14  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

office  floor  to  a  reserved  seat  in  the  Reporters' 
Sanctum. 

A  jolt,  a  lurching  swing,  the  vituperative  shriek 
of  an  ungreased  axle,  and  the  'bus  followed  a 
meandering  lane  that  brought  it  into  an  unimpeded 
headway.  Jack  sprang  to  his  feet  and  watched 
behind  him  the  still  imprisoned  limousine — it  too 
shot  ahead;  noiselessly  as  a  speeding  bird  it  over- 
took the  'bus  and  then  with  a  graceful  curve, 
almost  as  if  in  mockery  of  his  impotence,  it  vanished 
into  east  Fifty-eighth  Street. 

Jack  had  a  message  for  the  Director  of  the  Metro- 
politan Art  Museum.  It  was  from  myself  in  re- 
sponse to  an  inquiry  as  to  what  space  we  could 
aff"ord  for  a  description  of  a  new  Morgan  exhibit. 
Jack  was  a  safe  messenger,  unmistakably  accurate, 
but  we  always  discounted  his  celerity,  because  of  his 
preferences  for  a  ride  on  a  Fifth  avenue  'bus  and  the 
little  delinquencies  of  delay  his  observational 
powers  tempted  him  to  perpetrate.  He  was  an 
hour  later  than  the  most  generous  allowance  of 
time  would  justify.  Jack  was  to  bring  back  "copy" 
for  the  next  day's  issue.  I  lectured  him.  He 
was  sullenly  respectful,  indifferently  contrite,  and 
showed  a  taciturn  preoccupation  that  impressed 
my  reportorial  instinct  as  significant. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  missing  hour  was  used  in 
traversing  Fifty-eighth  Street.  The  fruit  of  Jack's 
search  was  diminutive  but  it  was  conclusive.  On 
the  pavement  in  front  of  No.  —  east  Fifty-eighth 
Street,  Jack  picked  up  a  microscopic  green  glass 
star.  He  knew  where  it  belonged — the  spangled 
turban  on  top  of  the  massed  hair  of  that  afternoon's 
debutante;  debutante  to  Jack's  official  criticism. 

This  minute  betrayal  had  dropped  from  her  hat, 
from  nowhere  else,  and  the  belligerent  cane  of  her 
escort  had  dislodged  it.  It  had  lain  somewhere  in 
the  folds  and  creases  of  the  soft  velvet,  to  fall  just 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  15 

there,  unsuspectedly  at  the  entrance  of  her  retreat 
— a  frail  enamel  bead  releasing  to  the  world  a 
marvelous  secret.  For  Jack  Riddles  intended  to 
watch  that  house;  he  would  enter  it;  if  it  con- 
cealed some  half  consummated  plot  of  SIN,  if 
indeed  the  plot  was  over,  its  victims  disposed  of, 
and  the  conspirators  were  there  enjoying  the  har- 
vest of  their  guilt,  he  would  know  it,  and — the 
eventuality  of  failure  never  entered  his  head.  He 
felt,  in  every  fibre,  a  certainty  of  wrong-doing, 
something  shadowy,  perhaps  darkly  cruel  in  these 
people.  His  prescience  was  involuntary;  he  never 
explained  it,  he  never  himself  understood  it. 

Jack  lived  in  Brooklyn,  with  his  wifeless  father. 
That  night  as  he  left  the  office  he  dropped  a  postal 
at  a  lamp  post  and  took  a  car  north.  He  was  fol- 
lowing the  trail.  A  little  transposed  I  submit 
Jack's  story  as  he  gave  it  to  me  the  next  morning. 

He  came  to  the  office  a  little  late,  and  knocked  at 
my  door.  On  entering  I  saw  instantly  that  he  was 
in  an  advanced  stage  of  nervous  excitement.  He 
was  pale,  and  a  fluttering  involuntary  movement  of 
his  hands,  one  over  the  other,  as  he  stood  before  me, 
with  a  glitter  in  his  peculiarly  shaped  and  small 
eyes  betrayed  his  mental  agitation.  He  was  quite 
wet,  had  probably  been  drenched,  and  the  first 
symptoms  of  a  chill  showed  that  precautions  were 
necessary  to  avert  a  possible  collapse.  I  told  him 
to  sit  down,  opened  a  cellarette,  which  had  its  pro- 
fessional and  commercial  uses,  and  poured  out  a 
rather  stiff  jorum  of  the  best  whisky  I  owned. 

As  he  swallowed  in  a  gulping  manner  the 
proffered  contents  of  the  glass,  he  was  rather  a 
ludicrous  and  yet  pitiful  and  heart-moving  object. 
His  disordered  hair,  shabby  clothes  and  a  certain 
forlorn  wistfulness  in  his  glance  upward  to  me,  com- 
bined with  his  lean  and  disjointed  anatomy  gave 
him  an  expression  that  was  at  once  tender  and 


16  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

laughable.  Only  a  Cruikshank  could  have  done 
it  justice.  His  spirits  revived,  animal  heat  reas- 
serted itself,  and  back  with  it,  as  if  it  had  stood 
somewhere  aside  until  invited  to  return,  came 
boastingly  his  invincible  pugnacity  and  confidence. 

"Mr.  Link,"  his  speech  was  customarily  hesitat- 
ing with  a  deprecatory  manner  as  if  forestalling 
interruption  or  correction,  and  impeded  by  a 
slight  stutter,  but  now,  in  the  tide  and  torrent  of 
his  thoughts,  under  the  sway  of  the  elation  over  his 
first  bit  of  detective  work,  it  was  rapid  but  coherent, 
and  oddly  picturesque.  "Mr.  Link,  I've  nipped  a 
pretty  piece  of  mischief  in  the  bud — seems  so  to  me. 
Of  course  I'm  just  on  the  trail,  and  fetching  up  to 
the  big  game  that  I  think  is  in  sight,  barring  the 
trees — may  take  more  work  than  I  think.  But  the 
proposition  is  as  clear  as  glass  that  there's  a  crooked 
game  being  pulled  off  at  —  east  Fifty-eighth  Street, 
and  I'm  convinced  that  'the  deceits  of  the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil,'  as  it  goes  in  the  prayer  book, 
are  behind  it.  Now  here's  the  evidence — not  much 
you  may  say,  but  I'll  hang  up  my  reputation  on 
it — you  know,  Mr.  Link,  I  have  a  little  hereabouts 
at  finding  out  things,  and  I'm  just  convinced  it — 
won't  drop. 

"I  was  on  the  'bus,  stalled  just  below  Forty- 
second  Street,  opposite  the  Library.  I  saw  a 
couple  of  people,  a  man  and  a  woman,  coming  down 
the  steps  to  the  street.  The  woman —  Well,  I 
couldn't  begin  to  tell  you  how  stunning  she  was. 
Beauty  was  just  all  over  her,  thick  too,  from  her 
feet  to  her  head.  I  remember  now  the  thought 
struck  me  as  I  looked  at  her  that  she'd  make  a  brass 
man  turn  round  to  see  her  when  she'd  passed.  And 
the  goods  on  her  were  as  sweet  and  gay  as  herself — 
a  picture,  Mr.  Link,  a  real  picture,  if  ever  a  woman 
made  one.  The  man  was  with  her,  good-looking 
and  cruel;    neat,  too,  and  Hell  painted  on  him  so 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  17 

plain  it  would  make  an  angel  throw  a  fit — if  an 
angel  could,  supposin'. 

"Now  Mr.  Link  I  hadn't  looked  that  long,"  Jack 
snapped  his  fingers,  "before  I  felt,  sir,  that  they 
were  rotten,  not  four  flushers,  but  the  real  had,  like 
those  the  Sunday  School  man  told  us  of,  who  'build 
a  town  with  blood,  and  establish  a  city  by  iniquity.' " 
The  pause  Jack  interpolated  here  was  as  oracular 
as  the  quotation.  I  did  him  a  great  injustice  to 
seem  indifferent  and  impatient.  Really  I  felt  the 
thrill  of  an  inevitable  sensation  approaching,  and — 
I  saw  beyond  it  hypnotizing  copy.  Jack  desidera- 
ted encouragement,  approval — I  looked  at  the 
clock  over  my  desk  and  yawned.  Surely  it  was 
deliberate  malice. 

"Like  that,  sir!"  Jack  clapped  his  hands 
loudly;  the  ruse  broke  through  my  affecta- 
tion, and  startled  me  into  attention  that  he  was 
keen  enough  to  see  was  as  intense  as  he  wished  it 
to  be. 

"Like  that,  sir,  they  hit  out  at  each  other,  and 
there  was  a  fight  on!  Then  a  husky —  Well,  a — 
white-hope  you  might  have  called  him — bounced 
in;  they  knew  him,  he  knew  them,  and  the  three 
chased  off  in  an  automobile.  I  lost  'em,  found  'em, 
and  tracked  'em  down  east  Fifty-eighth  Street. 
She  had  green  stars  in  her  hat — things  you  could 
hardly  see — but  they  shone!  I  found  one  on  a  door- 
step— and  last  night  I  watched  the  house!'' 

The  typical  story  teller  who  at  such  a  juncture 
lights  a  cigar,  finishes  an  unsmoked  pipe,  empties  a 
glass  of  grog,  or  rises  with  unconcealed  surprise 
over  his  neglect  to  fulfill  an  engagement  elsewhere, 
could  not  have  surpassed  the  self-control  with 
which  Jack,  for  the  same  purpose,  intimated  his  own 
retirement.  He  rose,  crushing  in  his  thin  fingers 
his  poor  bleached  blue  cap,  his  small  sparkling  eyes 
raised  to  the  clock,  which  a  moment  before  I  had 


18  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

invoked  so  heartlessly  to  aid  the  hypocrisy  of  my 
assumed  exemption  from  common  weaknesses. 

"I  think,  Mr.  Link,  it's  time  for  me  to  see  Mr. 
Force."  Mr.  Force  was  an  assistant  in  the  press- 
room. 

The  rebellious  spirit  of  honesty  which  I  had 
shamelessly  essayed  to  crush,  got  decidedly  the  best 
of  the  situation  now;  behind  it  was  the  pressure  of 
my  own  exorbitant  curiosity. 

"I  think  Jack,  you'll  sit  down  and  finish  your 
story." 

Jack    sat    down. 

"There  was  a  vacant  or  closed  house  opposite. 
I  perched  on  the  top  step  of  the  porch  and  glued  my 
eyes  on  No.  — .  I  think,  sir,  that  if  any  man  or 
woman  inside  had  winked  an  eye  at  me  from  across 
the  street,  I'd  have  seen  it.  But  it  wasn't  light 
enough  for  long  to  watch  trifles,  and  I  just  kept 
looking  at  the  front  door  and  the  windows.  It  was 
right  funny  how  the  lights  changed.  They  broke 
out  first  on  the  second  floor,  then  they  dropped  to 
the  basement,  then  they  climbed  to  the  third  story, 
down  again  to  the  first,  but  they  ended  in  the  attic 
windows  and  they  stayed  there.  Everything  else 
was  as  black  as  the  tomb. 

"The  wind  hustled  about  a  little,  splashes  of  rain 
hurried  along  with  it,  and  it  grew  dark  in  the  street. 
Once  or  twice  the  shades  lifted  and,  Mr.  Link" — 
Jack  was  a  picture  of  poignant  eagerness — "I  saw 
the  big  peach  and  her  man,  the  two  of  the  Library 
steps,  just  the  same  as  I  see  you.  They'd  open  the 
window  too  and  look  out  together  down  into  the 
street.  I  knew  why,  sir.  They  expected  that 
limousine — and  it  came." 

The  constraint  of  any  position  more  repressive 
than  sitting  to  Jack,  now  on  the  edge  of  his  exposure 
could  not  be  imagined.  He  stood  up,  moved 
towards  me,  the  color  mounting  in  his  pale  cheeks, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  19 

his  body  bent  a  little  forward,  and  his  eyes  Hghting 
up  with  an  interior  brilliancy  that  suddenly  made 
me  realize  Jack  might  become  a  good-looking  man. 

"After  that  they'd  go  away  from  the  window 
farther  back;  I  think  they  carried  a  lamp  with 
them  for  the  light  would  fade  away,  or  else  they 
turned  the  gas  ofif.  At  eleven  o'clock — I  could 
hear  the  clock  bells  from  the  steeples — the  wind 
was  racing  and  it  began  to  rain  hard.  I  got  some 
shelter  under  the  doorway;  the  light  never  left  the 
attic  across  the  street.  I  felt  it  all  over  me,  sir,  that 
IT  was  coming.  I'm  not  sure,  I  may  have  fallen 
asleep,  but  I  came  to  with  a  bounce.  Lightning 
was  chasing  through  the  sky  and  the  thunder  was 
booming  and — the  door  of  No.  —  was  open ;  the 
light  from  the  hall  flickered  over  the  wet  sidewalk, 
but  the  shower  had  passed.  The  man  and  the 
woman  both  stood  there  for  an  instant,  then  they 
went  in  and  the  door  shut  with  a  slam.  I  thought, 
sir,  I  had  lost  the  trail.  I  never  felt  worse.  I 
hated  them,  Mr.  Link.  Good  reason,  too."  His 
hands  suddenly  searched  his  vest,  they  were  un- 
rewarded ;  his  face  grew  blank  and  he  dropped  his 
hands  helplessly,  while  a  piteous  look  of  consterna- 
tion and  utter  despondency  shot  from  his  eyes  to 
mine,  by  this  time  fully  sympathetic  and  as  lustrous 
as  his  own. 

His  glance  fell  on  his  hat  that  lay  at  his  feet  on 
the  floor,  a  flood  of  revived  remembrances  followed ; 
he  snatched  it  up,  fumbled  in  its  lining  and  pulled 
out  a  scrap  of  wrinkled  paper.  The  returning  sun- 
shine of  confidence  renewed  again  the  handsome 
look  I  had  noticed  before.  He  certainly  was 
working  up  his  effects  with  a  remarkable  melo- 
dramatic insight  that  was  captivating. 

"I  ran  down  the  steps  into  the  street,  I  had 
heard  a  distant  croak  of  an  auto-horn,  and  on  top 
of  it  came  the  toll  of  one  o'clock  from  a  tower.     I 


20  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

had  been  asleep  over  an  hour.  There  was  no  hght 
in  No.  —  except  upstairs,  as  before,  in  the  attic. 
Then  the  croak  seemed  to  come  from  towards  the 
East  River,  and  I  saw  two  balls  of  light  rushing  at 
me.  IT  WAS  THE  LIMOUSINE.  I  started 
back,  and  stumbled  over  a  small  cobble  stone.  It 
looked  like  an  intervention — a  message,  Mr. 
Link — who  knows?  I  picked  it  up,  and  I  pulled 
out  a  jack  knife  I  had  in  my  pants.  Why?  I 
didn't  know,  but,  sir,  they  both  came  in  handy. 

"The  auto  sneaked  up  quiet  enough,  wheeled 
round  facing  East  River,  and  crept  in  a  little  to  one 
side  of  No.  — .  Mine  wasn't  the  only  pair  of  eyes 
watching  for  it.  It  had  hardly  grazed  the  curb 
when  the  front  door  opened  and  there  stood 
Mephistopheles,  behind  the  beautiful  woman,  both 
in  the  half  dark.  I  knew  them,  alright.  The  man 
came  down  the  steps  bareheaded,  he  carried  a  short 
something  in  his  right  hand.  The  sprinkle  started 
again,  and  a  smash  of  thunder  roared  overhead, 
and  a  clot-like  gloom  came  out  of  it.  Under  that 
cover  I  dashed  over  the  street  like  a  hare,  and  crept 
tight  up  to  the  back  of  the  car.  In  it  sat  Husky — 
the  peg-top  fellow  that  met  'em  in  Fifth  Avenue — 
and  another  man,  smaller,  and  sort  of  muffled  up. 
The  chauffeur  in  front  never  stirred  from  first  to  last. 

"Meph.  opened  the  door;  Husky  stepped  out;  he 
shook  the  little  man.  I  heard  him  mutter  'Come 
out  here.  Be  fly,  but  quiet,  or  by  God,  I'll  stick 
yer  through  and  no  compunctions,  mind  yer.' 
The  bundle  inside  stirred ;  I  peeped  in  from  behind, 
a  little  higher;  he  was  in  a  black  bag  or  something 
like  it,  and  as  he  stooped  under  the  door  and 
stumbled  out,  the  two  caught  him,  lifted  him  and 
started  up  the  steps,  where  the  woman  leaned 
forward — it  seemed  to  me  she  kept  clapping  her 
hands  together  softly  as  if  she  couldn't  hold  in  for 
delight.     Then,    sir — " 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  21 

Jack  straightened  himself,  bent  back,  relaxed, 
pitched  forward  with  one  outstretched  arm,  pro- 
jected like  a  catapult,  in  front  of  him,  "then,  sir, 
I  let  fly — not  at  them — I  didn't  know  who  I  might 
hit  and  anyhow,  hit  or  miss,  they'd  slipped  off 
through  that  door  quicker'n  snakes.  That  was  no 
use.  The  cobble  stone  slammed  through  the  glass 
side  of  the  limousine,  it  went  through  that  and  split 
the  window  opposite.  I  haven't  pitched  for  the 
Bogotas  for  nothing,  sir.  Before  they  had  time  to 
think,  I  jabbed  my  jack  knife  through  the  tire  and 
off  it  went  like  a  mortar.  Everything  was  quiet 
then  up  above  and  the  crash  and  the  explosion  had 
the  center  of  the  stage,  as  you  people  say.  I  guess 
it  made  their  hearts  jump.  They  looked  around, 
the  woman  screamed,  and — I  screamed — and  that 
chauffeur  didn't  even  turn  about.  For  nerve  or 
sheer  fright  he  had  the  record.  Perhaps  at  such 
times,  sir,  you  can't  distinguish.     Eh? 

"Well,  they  lost  their  grip  on  the  bundle,  for  it 
was  a  pretty  uneasy  load  to  carry  now;  the  inter- 
ruption perhaps  gave  the  fellow  inside  some  hope. 
He  rolled  down  the  steps  onto  the  pavement  like  a 
bag  of  beans,  moving  slightly  like  a  strangled  dog. 
I  heard  Husky's  voice,  'Inside,  inside  with  him! 
Don't  stop,  swat  him,'  and  then  the  black  scoun- 
drel raised  his  cudgel  and  beat  the  poor  creature 
insensible.  I  heard  him  groan  where  I  stood.  I 
was  crazy  with  rage ;  I  felt  myself  suffocating.  I 
had  been  shouting,  'Help!  Help!'  but  my  voice 
left  me;  I  discovered  that  I  was  very  wet,  and  then 
a  strange  vertigo  came  over  me,  a  pain  crossed 
my  chest,  and  a  fire  seemed  to  rage  in  my  throat. 
I  was  sick,  sir.     I  am — " 

Jack  tottered.  I  caught  him,  poor  fellow; 
exposure  and  overstrained  emotions  had  prostrated 
him.  And  he  was  still  damp;  perhaps  breakfast- 
less.     I  had  been  thoughtless,  but  no  time  was  to 


22  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

be  lost.  There  was  an  emergency  room  in  the  build- 
ing, and  there  Jack  was  hurried.  Strengthened 
with  nourishment,  and  warmed  again  into  anima- 
tion with  stimulants,  revived  by  sleep — he  hardly 
stirred  for  sixteen  hours,  so  deathlike  was  his 
slumber — he  just  escaped  a  serious  illness.  Re- 
cuperation was  instantaneous;  his  own  mental 
energy  worked  wonders  and  when  two  days  later  he 
returned  to  the  theme  of  his  story  hardly  a  trace  of 
his  weakness  was  betrayed.  He  was  keen  to  engage 
in  the  solution  of  the  midnight  mystery  and  he 
implored  me  not  to  share  his  discovery  with  anyone 
else  except  the  police  to  whom  indeed  I  had  already 
related  Jack's  experience.  Jack  realized  that  their 
co-operation  was  indispensable.  It  was  then  he 
showed  me  the  wrinkled  scrap  of  paper  which  he 
had  secreted  in  the  lining  of  his  cap,  and  afterwards 
stuck  in  his  trousers'  pocket,  and  which  I  had 
forgotten. 

There  was  printed  on  it  in  pencil,  "I  am  a  pris- 
oner.    My  life  is  in  danger.     A.  E." 

The  paper  was  of  the  thin  and  excellent  quality 
used  in  engineers'  pocket  tables  and  handbooks. 

It  appeared  that  Jack  upon  feeling  the  sudden 
desertion  of  his  strength  had  stolen  again  to  the  door- 
way of  the  empty  house  opposite  No.  —  and  must 
have  drowsed  away  there  the  rest  of  the  night, 
urged  apparently  by  his  ineradicable  hope  of  further 
disclosures.  His  persistency  was  rewarded  by 
finding  this  puzzling  and  startling  bit  of  evidence. 
He  found  it,  most  remarkably,  on  the  floor  of  the 
abandoned  limousine. 

The  car  had  remained  undisturbed  all  night  in  the 
street,  and  this  strange  neglect  on  the  part  of  its 
previous  users  could  only  be  explained  by  the  sup- 
position that  they  feared  some  unpleasant  compli- 
cations, involving  disagreeable  explanations  with 
its  actual  owners,  unless  they  were  the  owners  of  it 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  23 

themselves.  Jack  crawled  over  to  the  car  in  the 
earliest  hour  of  the  morning  before  the  dawn  had 
yet  grown  strong  enough  to  make  its  outlines 
visible,  while  night  practically  covered  the  street. 
No.  —  was  dark  from  basement  to  attic,  not  a  light 
shone  in  it  anywhere.  He  remembered  that  very 
distinctly. 

He  had  had  an  indefinite  premonition  or  fancy 
that  something  left  behind  in  the  car  might  be 
found ;  clues  like  that  figured  in  all  the  romances  of 
detection.  He  explored  with  his  hands  the  corners, 
the  cushions,  and  the  floor,  when,  passing  his  hand 
along  the  edge  of  the  carpet  mat  covering  the  floor, 
it  encountered  a  bit  of  paper  rolled  up  into  a  pellet. 
After  the  discovery  of  the  writing  he  went  to  an 
owl  wagon  restaurant,  and  then  hastened  to  the 
newspaper  office. 

But  two  hours  later,  when  the  daylight  swept 
through  the  city,  he  returned  to  Fifty-eighth  Street, 
from  a  restless  feeling  of  suspicion,  and  agonized  too 
with  the  thought  of  the  abused  and  helpless 
prisoner.  The  auto  was  gone,  and  the  mysterious 
house  revealed  nothing,  with  its  shades  drawn 
down  and  its  immobile  identity  with  the  other 
sandstone  fronts  hopelessly  complete.  If  murder 
dwelt  behind  its  expressionless  stories,  or  some 
dastardly  drama  of  persecution,  extortion,  torture, 
eiTrontery  and  crime  had  been  enacted  there,  no 
telltale  signal  betrayed  it.  And  yet  to  Jack's  in- 
flamed imagination  it  confessed  its  guilt ;  somehow 
to  his  obsessed  eye  he  saw  the  meanness  of  its 
degradation,  as  if  it  shrank  away  from  its  orderly 
and  decent  neighbors;  as  if  indeed  its  neighbors 
frowned  upon  it.  He  returned  to  the  office  and 
told  me  his  story. 

A  newspaper  man  has  the  keenest  sort  of  scent 
for  sensation — especially  the  yellow  newspaper  man, 
and  I  fail  to  recoil  from  making  the  confession  of 


24  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

my  personal  yellowness  in  that  respect.  He  is  sel- 
dom bewildered  by  scruples,  seldom  daunted  by 
danger;  he  doesn't  think  of  them.  He  starts  the 
engines  of  exposure  and  arrest,  and  records  the 
result.  Half  an  hour  after  Jack's  story  was  told 
Captain  B —  of  the  —  precinct  was  closeted 
with  me,  and  I  repeated  Jack's  adventure. 

Jack's  description  of  the  three  principals  in  this 
suspicious  criminal  alliance  was  insufficient  or 
inadequate  to  enable  Captain  B.  to  recognize 
them  among  the  notables  of  both  the  under  and  the 
upper  worlds  with  whom  he  was  acquainted.  I 
had  not  then  seen  the  paper  Jack  found. 

"Mr.  Link,"  Captain  B.  finally  said,  after  a 
short  silence  following  my  communication,  "you 
feel  pretty  sure  of  this  young  fellow.  Jack  Riddles? 
The  name  suggests  an  equivocal  character." 

"I  feel  a  good  deal  surer  of  him,  perhaps,  than  I 
do  of  myself — if  you  can  understand." 

"Oh  I  catch  that.  Well  No.  —  will  be  watched 
night  and  day  for  a  short  time.  Your  young 
friend's  rather  violent  exploit  may  have  scared  its 
tenants  ofif.  The  auto  went.  Perhaps  they  went 
with  it.  It  won't  do  to  break  in  at  once.  We 
must  have  some  evidence  of  occupation  and  a  line 
on  the  occupants  that  runs  straight  with  Riddles' 
description." 

"But  that  wretched  man?  Suppose  they  kill  him. 
A  little  less  carefulness,  Captain,  might  save  him 
and,  under  the  circumstances,  I  don't  think  I'd  be 
squeamish  over  precedents." 

"Oh,  that  team  isn't  ready  for  murder  yet — 
they're  not  thinking  of  it.  They've  kidnapped 
someone  for  one  reason  or  another.  Bagging  him 
that  way  showed  they  wanted  something  out  of 
him.  I'll  place  them  in  twelve  hours  or  so,  and  if 
they  cover  the  same  size  Riddles  gave  I'll  take  the 
risk  and  search  the  house." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  25 

"Of  course  you'll  let  us  in,  Captain,  on  the  ground 
floor  so  to  speak?" 

"Sure!  Ill  tip  you  on  the  first  peep  we  hear. 
But  get  that  boy  on  his  legs;  we'll  need  him." 

It  was  just  a  day  and  a  half  later  that  a  police- 
man brought  me  a  sealed  envelope.  Of  course  I 
knew  who  had  sent  it.  There  was  no  answer  the 
policeman  said,  and  left.  I  opened  the  missive 
expectantly.  I  was  not  disappointed.  Its  con- 
tents were  more  rapturously  thrilling  to  my  jour- 
nalistic hunger  for  marvels  and  mysteries,  and  those 
labyrinthine  prodigies  of  subterranean  deviltry  that 
Cobb,  or  Ainsworth,  or  George  Sand  revelled  in, 
than  any  mess  of  crime  I  had  tumbled  on  or  in,  since 
Joe  Horner,  our  chief  city  reporter,  went  through  a 
hatchway  in  the  Bronx  and  dropped  into  a  hogs- 
head of  claret  (Zinfandel)  with  two  dead  bodies  in 
it! 

Captain  B.'s  note  ran:  "Riddles  corroborated. 
They're  there;  three  of  them  and  a  squeegee.  Up 
to  mischief — perhaps  forgery — something  like  it. 
Pounce  on  them  tomorrow.  We've  moved  like 
mice,  and  the  trap  has  been  set  quietly.  Nothing 
more  simple.  Guess  you  might  like  to  be  in  at  the 
death.  Bring  Riddles.  We  break  cover  at  1 1  p.  m. 
Meet  at  the  police  station  *  *  *" 

Riddles  was  then  on  the  mend,  and  when  I  told 
him  how  matters  stood,  the  boy  smiled  grimly, 
caught  my  hand  and  exclaimed:  "Good  medicine 
for  me,  Mr.  Link.  I  feel  it  to  the  end  of  my  toes. 
That's  the  tonic  I  need.  Trust  me,  I'll  be  with 
you,  strong  and  hearty."     He  was. 

Captain  B.  had  arranged  the  affair  tactfully.  He 
had  conveyed  his  suspicions  to  the  householder  on 
the  west  side  of  No.  —  and  had  secured  his  permis- 
sion to  admit  three  plain-clothes  men  through  his 
backyard  to  the  backyard  of  No.  — ;  also  his  own 
party  of  six,  with  Riddles  and  myself  as  press  agents, 


26  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

onto  the  roof,  whence  we  expected  to  effect  an 
entrance  through  the  roof  door  or  skyHght,  while  a 
few  men  on  the  street  would  intercept  flight  in  that 
direction.  Riddles  was  radiant ;  it  was  a  beautiful 
tribute  to  his  sagacity;  all  this  had  come  about 
through  his  quick  insight,  his  instantaneous  sense  of 
obliquity,  alias  crookedness,  when  he  saw  the 
quarreling  pair  on  the  Public  Library  steps.  As 
we  cautiously  climbed  over  the  low  parapet  separat- 
ing the  two  roofs,  with  only  the  light  of  the  stars  to 
guide  us,  not  altogether  appropriately  I  recalled 
Jonathan  Wild's  chase  of  Thomas  Dauell  over  the 
housetops,  and  also  the  burglary  at  Dollis  Hill  in 
Jack  Shepard.  There  were  more  apposite  occur- 
rences in  fiction  to  compare  our  maneuvers  with, 
but  I  thought  of  these. 

I  had  shown  to  the  Captain  the  pathetic  call  for 
rescue  scrawled  on  the  paper  scrap.  It  was  palp- 
ably written  by  a  foreigner,  perhaps  a  German, 
certainly  someone  of  Teutonic  origin,  and  the  paper 
had  been  torn  from  a  book,  some  such  technical 
guide  for  engineers  as  I  had  suggested.  It  did  not 
interest  Captain  B.  greatly.  He  told  me,  before  we 
started  out,  that  the  "peg-top"  man — a  Hercules — 
the  beautiful  woman  and  "Mephistopheles"  had  all 
been  seen,  and  no  one  else,  but  that  dark  ruby  glass, 
identical  he  thought  with  that  used  by  photog- 
raphers, had  been  inserted  in  the  front  attic  win- 
dows, where  he  suspected  the  imprisoned  man  was 
kept  at  work  in  some  nefarious  trade,  from  which 
the  trio  derived  support  or  profit.  As  to  the 
criminal  character  of  "the  bunch"  he  had  no 
doubts.  The  two  men  almost  invariably  carried 
bundles  into  the  house,  but  none  out. 

We  were  at  the  doorway  of  a  little  triangular 
erection  which  covered  the  stairway  leading  from 
the  roof  to  the  attic  and  our  approach,  in  rubbers, 
had  been  almost  noiseless.     The  door  was  shut,  but 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  27 

only  locked;  the  precautions  against  invasion  had 
been  forgotten  or  overlooked.  It  was  not  even 
bolted.  Evidently  the  conspirators  or  counter- 
feiters, or  whatever  they  were,  apprehended  noth- 
ing; we  might  catch  them  red  handed.  A  stout 
chisel  enabled  us  to  force  the  door  inward,  and  a 
dark  lantern  revealed  a  dilapidated  stairway  below, 
ending  in  a  kind  of  storage  room,  cluttered  up  with 
the  refuse  of  successive  occupancies,  a  dangerously 
inflammable  chaos  of  rubbish,  in  which  a  feebly 
sputtering  match  could  create  a  conflagration 
before  it  was  suspected.  It  required  some  dis- 
crimination to  cross  this  debris  without  starting 
some  crumbling  avalanche  of  fragments  in  the 
boxes,  baby  carriages,  stoves,  chairs,  trunks, 
picture  frames,  racks  and  easels.  As  it  was,  with 
our  best  efi"orts  slides  occurred,  and  the  mastodon- 
like tread  of  the  detectives  sank  noisily  through  an 
occasional  bandbox.  We  paused  anxiously — I  did,  at 
least — at  such  moments,  but  the  crash,  so  it  sounded 
to  me,  brought  no  response.  I  reasoned  the  house 
must  be  vacant,  and  that  our  quarry  had  escaped. 
We  found  that  a  closed  door  opened  upon  a  nar- 
row hallway,  and  as  we  softly  drew  it  back  loud 
voices  most  unexpectedly  became  audible,  certainly 
proceeding  from  the  front  rooms  of  that  very  floor; 
from  that  front  room  wherein  Jack  had  noticed  the 
light,  and  where  the  detectives  reported  the  inser- 
tion of  the  ruby  panes.  A  hoarse  dominant  swelled 
up  in  the  excited  conversation.  Jack  leaned  to- 
wards me  and  whispered  "That's  Husky" ;  Captain 
raised  a  warning  finger,  and  we  filed  out,  one  by  one, 
gingerly  tiptoeing  toward  the  room  which  now 
unquestionably  contained  the  objects  of  our  search. 
The  familiar  scare  or  thrill  which  submerges  all 
lesser  emotions,  as  the  danger  point  in  an  encounter 
is  approached,  decidedly  manifested  itself  some- 
where in  my  anatomy,  or  probably  all  over  it. 


28  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Any  mental  analysis  of  my  feelings  was  abruptly 
halted  by  the  threats  or  altercation  now  heard  very 
clearly  in  the  room  before  us. 

We  had  reached  the  door,  beneath  which  a 
streak  of  light  gave  a  penumbral  illumination  to 
the  end  of  the  little  hallway.  Below,  in  the  house 
itself,  absolute  silence  reigned,  and  apparently 
as  complete  darkness.  Our  approach  was  un- 
noticed. The  excitement  or  rage  that  overpowered 
the  speaker,  breaking  out  in  threats  that  now 
became  intelligible  and  startled  us  into  a  fierce  im- 
patience to  interfere,  had  certainly  stopped  his 
ears.  The  suffocation  of  anger  had  made  him 
deaf. 

"Damn  you — you'll  show  us  the  trick,  or  else 
your  starved  and  scorched  body  will  take  the  conse- 
quences. We  know  well  enough  you  can  do  it. 
You've  led  us  on  with  blind  promises,  but  now 
we've  got  you  where  we  want  you.  You  can't  get 
out  of  this,  remember,  until  we  get  what  we  want. 
Can  you  understand?" 

"And  then  you'll  kill,  I  suppose?"  The  voice 
was  strained,  thick,  foreign  in  accent,  and  low. 

Riddles  stretched  himself  up  to  my  ear  again  and 
whispered  "A.  E.?"     I  nodded  assent. 

"No!  No!  Oh, no;  but — you  must  not  stay  here." 
The  voice  was  a  woman's.  "We'll  take  care  of  you. 
Nicely  too,  Diaz,  I  guess.  We'll  keep  you  where 
you  won't  tell  tales."  A  mean,  cynical  laugh  fol- 
lowed, a  muttered  corroboration  from  a  third 
person,  who  had  evidently  crossed  the  room.  It 
was  this  last  voice  that  continued  the  harangue  of 
the  prisoner  in  a  smooth,  polished,  plausible  manner 
that  thinly  veiled  its  heartlessness;  its  crafty  in- 
sinuation betrayed  a  designing  selfishness,  but  it 
seemed  welcome  after  the  barking  hoarseness  and 
ferocity  of  its  predecessor,  and  the  cruelty  of  that 
feminine  sneer.     Its  climax  came  at  the  close  with 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  29 

a  threat  of  fiendish  wickedness  that  broke  the  ten- 
sion of  our  restraint. 

"Alfred  Erickson,  perhaps  you  can  understand 
your  predicament  a  little  better,  if  you  will  stop  to 
think  it  over.  You  are  a  stranger  here,  and  you  are 
in  our  power.  That,  you  probably  realize  pretty 
well  by  this  time.  There  is  something  else  you  may 
not  so  clearly  comprehend,  and  that  is,  we  are  not 
afraid  of  consequences,  because  in  your  case,  so  far 
as  we  are  concerned,  there  will  be  no  consequences! 
You  can  extricate  yourself  easily  enough  if  you  Avill 
be  sensible.  Obstinacy  has  its  merits  under  some 
circumstances;  your  perseverance  in  your  Arctic 
experiences  was  rewarded — and  we  know  exactly 
how — but  obstinacy  is  of  no  avail  just  now,  and  no 
rescuing  party  from  Norway,  or  even  from  the  New 
York  police  wnll  save  you  from,  perhaps,  an  un- 
fortunate calamity." 

This  allusion  appealed  facetiously  to  the  others, 
and  there  arose  a  musical  outburst  of  laughter  from 
the  lady,  with  an  accompaniment  of  harsh  bass 
grunts  from  the  first  speaker.  The  voice  con- 
tinued: 

"You  possess  a  secret  that  the  whole  world  has 
been  hunting  for,  and  we  propose  that  the  world  will 
go  on  hunting  for  it  before  you  will  ever  be 
able  to  tell  it.  Share  with  us  and,  under  reser- 
vations, you  will  be  well  cared  for.  Refuse  and, 
as  we  have  gone  so  far,  we  will  find — and  you 
too — the  rest  of  the  way  very  simple.  You're  not 
at  this  moment  likely  to  be  able  to  help  yourself. 
That  little  incident  outside,"  Riddles  nudged  me 
again,  "meant  nothing.  You're  as  much  buried 
alive  in  this  attic  in  the  first  city  of  the  world,  as  if 
you  occupied  a  tomb  of  the  Pharaohs.  We're  not 
as  self -controlled  as  you  seem  to  be.  We  may  get 
restless.  Then,  sir" — we  heard  him  step  forward; 
I  imagined  him  leaning  close  to  his  victim,  for  it 


30  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

was  evident  the  man  was  in  some  way  confined — 
"then,  sir,  up  you  go — you  and  your  secret — in 
smoke." 

His  smothered  rage  broke  out  then,  and  we  heard 
him  strike  the  man  and  curse  him.  There  was  the 
remonstrance  of  a  cry — that  was  all.  The  next 
instant  we  would  have  forced  our  way  through  a 
stone  wall  had  we  been  against  it,  but  Captain  B. 
raised  his  hand.  His  trained  endurance  amazed 
me.     The  voice  resumed: 

"Now  what  do  you  propose  to  do?" 

"Yes,  what?"  from  the  first  ruffian. 

We  held  our  breaths  and  listened  with  all  our 
ears. 

"Let  me  get  up.  Let  me  talk  this  over  with  you. 
You  are  driving  me  crazy!  I  can't  think.  I  will 
forget  what  you  say  I  know.     You — " 

"Hell  with  your  parleying.  I'll  untieyour  tongue. 
I  guess  your  memory  will  work  quick  enough 
after  this";    it  was  Husky  threatening. 

Then  succeeded  the  jeering  encouragement  of  the 
woman  and,  strange  paradox,  the  voice  was  rich, 
enticing,  but  mocking. 

"Oh,  yes;  just  a  little  stimulation  will  hurry  up 
matters.  Diaz  we  can't  wait  much  longer  and," 
the  menad  fury  broke  loose,  "if  this  miserable 
creature  holds  out  much  longer  we  shall  be  ruined. 
Burn  him — burn  him — scald  it  out  of  him,  Huerta; 
the  dolt,  simpleton,   idiot — " 

There  was  a  shuffling  movement  inside,  the  sud- 
den bristling,  rushing  sound  of  an  airblast  (Could 
it  be  a  naphtha  lamp?)  and  then  a  raving,  rending, 
terrifying  cry,  something  that  meant  fear  and  rage 
and  madness,  the  awful,  marrow-chilling  shriek  of 
insanity. 

Quicker  than  thought  a  man  behind  me  shoved 
us  aside.  He  raised  an  iron  mallet;  it  struck  the 
door  with  a  splintering  crash — another  and  another 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  31 

— the  door  burst  inwards,  torn  from  its  lock,  torn 
from  its  hinges,  and  we  all  rushed  forward.  I  heard 
a  shot,  then  another;  the  group  in  front  of  me 
parted  and  an  extraordinary  scene  was  revealed, 
one  I  can  never  forget.  A  huge  broad-shouldered 
man  was  crumpled  upon  the  floor.  There  had 
fallen  from  his  hand  a  thick,  long  soldering  iron; 
it  had  been  red  or  white  hot;  fallen  on  the  floor  it 
was  burning  into  the  boards,  and  little  swinging 
flames  encircled  it.  Near  at  hand  was  the  large 
form  of  a  plumber's  furnace  with  the  blue  whistling 
flame  still  shooting  from  it.  Huddled  in  a  corner, 
cowering  behind  a  menacing  man — quickly  sub- 
dued, however,  by  a  pointed  revolver — was  the 
beautiful  woman,  a  half  dishevelled  creature  in  a 
deep  yellow  wrap,  fastened  a  little  distance  below 
her  peerless  throat  by  a  big  turquoise  brooch.  Her 
abundant  hair  had  become  loosened,  and  it  poured 
over  her  shoulders  in  a  raven  tide. 

The  man  in  front  of  her  was  Riddles'  Mephis- 
topheles.  He  was  pale,  and  the  pallor  hardly  be- 
came him.  Although  strikingly  handsome  it  gave 
a  peculiar  expression  to  his  face,  of  craven  hate  and 
sinister  fear,  if  that  can  be  understood.  In  both 
his  and  the  woman's  eyes  shone  a  horrible  surprise. 
But  the  overpowering  object  in  the  room  was  the 
half-naked  figure  of  a  man  with  extended  arms  and 
divergent  legs,  strapped  to  a  narrow  table  by  iron 
bands.  These  latter  passed  over  his  wrists  and 
ankles,  and  were  actually  screwed  to  the  table. 
His  face  was  not  readily  deciphered;  whiskers 
covered  his  chin,  a  high  forehead  beneath  over- 
hanging light  hair  and  a  large  mouth  formed  to- 
gether the  suggestion  of  a  very  dignified  and  intelli- 
gent face.  His  condition  was  heart-rending; 
bruises  covered  his  body,  one  eye  seemed  swollen 
and  shut,  and  scars — I  shuddered  at  the  thought  of 
their  having  been  caused  by  the  iron  in  the  hands  of 


32  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

of    the    prostrate    fiend — marked    the    white    but 
defaced  skin  of  his  shoulders  and  arms. 

There  was  little  furniture  in  the  room — the  tor- 
tured man  had  probably  been  kept  on  the  table  at 
night — a  few  chairs,  a  second  table,  and  towards  the 
front  of  the  room  a  long  table  covered  with  a  confu- 
sion of  physical  apparatus.  It  was  the  work  of  a 
minute  to  search  the  criminals,  and  to  handcuff 
them;  though  the  woman  cried  bitterly  at  the 
degradation  Captain  B.  was  taking  no  chances,  and 
then  the  liberation  of  the  pitiable  victim  of  these 
inhuman  miscreants  was  effected.  The  stiffness  of 
his  limbs  almost  forbade  movement,  and  he  cried 
with  pain — and  for  that  matter  I  am  sure  with  joy 
too — as  we  tenderly  raised  him,  lifted  him  into  a 
chair,  and  tried  to  relax  the  rigid  muscles.  His 
agony,  crucified  so  on  his  back,  must  have  been 
incalculable;  evidently  his  resolute  refusal  had 
driven  his  tormentors  furious,  and  made  them 
incarnate  demons.  But  what  was  it — the 
SECRET?  Reader,  you  are  not  to  know,  except 
as  you  find  it  out  yourself,  by  reading  this  almost 
incredible  story. 

With  our  prisoners — the  Hercules  was  carried 
out;  his  femur  had  been  split  by  the  Captain's 
bullet  and  he  was  in  desperate  pain — we  made  our 
way  down  through  the  house.  There  seemed  to  be 
only  two  rooms  showing  any  signs  of  habitation, 
two  rooms  on  the  second  floor  used  as  bedrooms, 
and  their  furnishment  was  a  droll  mixture  of  bare- 
ness and  luxury.  Shreddy  and  hanging  wallpaper, 
a  superb  rug  or  so,  a  sumptuous  easy  chair,  and  then 
wooden  kitchen  chairs,  plain  bedsteads,  but  a 
bureau  or  toilet  table  covered  with  jewel  boxes,  and 
in  a  corner  odds  and  ends  of  silver  utensils,  heaped 
up  into  quite  a  noticeable  hillock.  Was  it  these 
that  the  men  had  been  seen  carrying  so  constantly 
into  the  house?     Our  prying  about  uncovered  some 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  33 

decanters  of  wine  incongruously  stowed  away  in  a 
pantry  below  a  washbasin.  Their  contents  helped 
Erickson,  and  some  of  the  rest  helped  themselves. 

Riddles  had  been  gloating  over  the  capture  of  his 
game;  his  eyes  never  left  the  sullen,  downcast  face 
of  Mephistopheles,  distorted  too  at  moments  with 
angry  scowls,  nor  the  disturbed  shadowed  splendor 
of  the  woman's  countenance.  At  an  unguarded 
instant  Mephistopheles  sprang  out  of  the  hold  of  his 
captors,  and  brought  his  clenched,  handcuffed 
wrists  down  on  the  head  of  Jack,  who  promptly 
dropped. 

"You  dirty  little  fox,  you  did  this.  I  know  now. 
I've  seen  you  hanging  about  here.  I'll  mark  you! 
I'll  mark  you !  I'll  tear  your  liver  and  heart  out  yet. 
Oh,  I  don't  forget.     Diaz  never  forgets." 

He  was  jerked  back  into  decorum  and  silence,  and 
somewhat  injuriously  rebuked  as  well,  but  a  little 
scar,  bare  of  hair,  was  to  remain  as  a  memento  of  his 
regard  for  Jack  Riddles  for  many  a  long  year  after- 
wards. 

I  bargained  successfully  with  Captain  B.  for  the 
possession  of  Erickson,  and  I  took  him  home  in  a 
taxi,  greatly  to  my  journalistic  bliss.  He  was 
pretty  dangerously  ill  for  days;  the  nervous  break- 
down was  dreadful.  He  raved  and  shouted  and 
was  almost  maniacal  in  his  outbreaks.  It  was  the 
natural  reaction  of  a  powerful  mind  and  nature 
against  the  circumstances  of  his  degradation  and 
insult.  But  he  finally  came  round  all  right,  the 
glow  of  health  covered  his  cheeks,  and  his  earnest 
eyes  welcomed  me  with  sanity  and  gratitude. 
Then  he  told  me  his  story,  in  two  parts.  The  first 
part  explained  the  predicament  in  which  we  found 
him  here  in  New  York,  the  second — Well,  the 
reader  has  it  before  him  in  this  volume,  exactly  as 
it  appeared  in  the  daily  issue  of  the  New  York 
Truth  Getter. 


34  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

A  few  words  more  to  explain  Mr.  Erickson's 
equivocal,  abject  position  in  New  York,  as  we  found 
him,  and  this  Editorial  Note  will  no  longer  restrain 
the  puzzled  and  vexed  subscriber.  These  words 
will  be  very  few  indeed,  and  may  indeed  prove  very 
unsatisfactory.  Yet  they  will  conveniently  make 
a  skeleton  framework  or  outline  for  deductions, 
with  which  the  reader  may  fill  its  expressionless 
and  yawning  blanks,  after  the  gift  of  his  imagina- 
tion or  the  bias  of  his  temperament,  upon  reading 
the  ensuing  narrative. 

Alfred  Erickson  reached  San  Francisco  from  the 
Arctic  Exploration,  herein  circumstantially  de- 
scribed. In  San  Francisco  he  formed,  rather 
rapidly,  the  acquaintance  of  Angelica  Sigurda 
Tabasco,  and  Diaz  Ilario  Aguadiente.  There  were 
mutual  prepossessions.  Mr.  Erickson  also  fas- 
cinated his  new  friends  by  certain  wonderful  claims, 
which  were  however  partially  supported  by  ocular 
demonstration.  They  all  came  to  New  York.  In 
New  York  Mr.  Erickson  came  to  grief.  He  had 
come  too  far  from  the  base  of  his  operations,  and  he 
suffered  from  a  complicated  treatment.  We  res- 
cued him  from  its  worst  effects.  I  think  that  is  all. 
I  will  not  trust  myself  to  say  more  for  fear  of  my 
own  remorse  over  misleading  statements.  Angelica 
and  Diaz  were  never  prosecuted.  Erickson  was 
afraid  to  tell  his  story  before  he  wrote  his  book  (this 
book),  and  we  all  agreed  he  acted  wisely  from  a 
commercial  standpoint,  and  the  police  so  impressed 
Angelica  and  Diaz  with  their — the  police's — 
contiguity  under  any  and  all  circumstances,  in  this 
country  anywhere,  anyhow,  that  they  left  it.  And 
Jack's  "Husky"  turned  out  to  be  a  hardened 
photographed  and  historic  criminal,  who  had 
played  the  heavy  villain  in  the  little  mystery  under 
the  same  impelling  motive  that  animated  the  minds 
and  tongues  of  Angelica  and  Diaz.     He  had  also 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  35 

captivated  this  captivating  pair  by  blandishments 
less  peculiar  than  beauty,  and  he  had  wound  up 
Alfred  Erickson  into  the  tightest  kind  of  a  knot  of 
physical  embarrassments,  from  whose  Gordian 
embrace  Erickson  had  been  delivered  through  the 
intervention  of  the  very  humble  instrument  of 
Fate,  Jack  Riddles. 

"Husky's"  name  eluded  determination  for  a 
while,  but  was  revived  through  his  own  inadver- 
tence in  talking  in  his  sleep,  wherein  the  confession 
transpired  of  his  having  "done  up"  Blue  Brigsy  at 
a  time  when  he  himself  carried  the  soubriquet  of 
"Monitor  Dick."  The  clue  was  slight;  it  proved 
sufficient,  and  landed  him  in  Sing  Sing  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century. 

Jack  Riddles  was  "lifted."  He  was  taken  out  of 
the  proletariat,  the  pages,  office  boys  and  messen- 
gers, and  placed  among  the  police  reporters,  where 
he  was  duly  taken  in  hand  under  instruction  to 
acquire  the  current  cursorial  gait  and  speed  of  the 
slam-bang  reportorial  style.  He  will  get  it.  This 
relieves  the  situation  created  by  Riddles'  opportune 
circumspection  from  the  top  of  the  Fifth  Avenue 
'bus. 

The  reader,  albeit  he  may  demur  at  the  jejune 
skipping  around  the  explanation  of  the  mystery  at 
No.  —  east  Fifty-eighth  Street,  has  hereby  had  the 
situation  sufficiently  cleared  to  feel  himself  ready  to 
enjoy  Erickson's  story,  and  I  assure  him,  he  may 
look  forward  with  expectancy  to  find  the  residue,  or 
the  heart,  of  that  mystery  resolved  at,  let  me  say, 
page  400  or  thereabouts,  assuming  that  by  that 
time  he  cares  any  more  about  it.  So  that,  pleas- 
antly impelled  by  the  spur  of  curiosity,  as  regards  a 
secret  yet  undivulged,  let  him  accept  our  editorial 
invitation — Does  he  not  see  our  obeisance,  and  the 
sweep  of  our  hand  pointing  to  a  door  opening  upon 
unimaginable  wonders? — to  peruse  the  history  of  a 


36  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

voyage  more  marvelous  than  that  of  Marco  Polo, 
of  Father  Hue,  of  Mandeville,  of  Munchausen,  of 
Sinbad,  the  Aethiopics  of  Heliodorus,  of  Ariosto,  of 
Gulliver,  of  Ulysses,  of  Peter  Wilkins,  of  Camoens, 
of  Pomponius  Mela. 

Sive  per  Syrtes  iter  aestuosas, 
Sive  facturus  per  inhospitalem 
Caucasum,  vet  quae  loca  fabulosa 
Lamhit  Hydaspes 

His  unappeased  wonder  over  a  bit  of  unraveled 
criminality  will  vanish  in  the  excitement  of  dis- 
covery, of  adventure,  of  revelation,  but  at  the  other 
end,  as  the  book  drops  from  his  hand,  finished  and 
admired,  he  will  approve  our  reticence  at  this  end, 
for  then  he  will  know  HOW  Erickson  got  into  his 
difficulty,  and  WHY. 

Erickson 's  story  was  published  in  the  New  York 
Truth  Getter — of  course  the  reader  never  saw  it 
there — prepared  from  his  verbal  narrative,  his 
notes,  and  memoranda,  and  so  expressed  in  Eng- 
lish as  to  retain  the  glow,  enthusiasm,  amaze- 
ment, and  graphic  delineation  of  the  original.  It 
was  told  to  me  in  my  library  overlooking  the  sunlit 
tides  around  Throg's  Neck;  in  the  short  winter 
afternoons  at  times,  at  times  through  the  long  win- 
ter evenings,  with  Erickson  hanging  over  the  hearth 
where,  as  Max  Beerbohm  puts  it,  "gradually  the 
red-gold  caverns  are  revealed,  gorgeous,  mysterious, 
with  inmost  recesses  of  white  heat."  Past  all 
dreams  of  wizardry,  more  remote  from  thought 
than  any  visions  of  magic,  stranger  than  the  hal- 
lucinations of  invention,  was  this  picture  of  the 
unreal  and  terraced  world  descending  in  titanic 
steps  to  the  heated  regions  of  the  earth's  mass, 
peopled  with  an  impossible  people,  alive  with 
animal  abundance  and  clothed  in  the  vestal  glory 
of  innumerable  plants.     In  it  were  enacted  those 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  37 

transmutations  which  Science  predicts  as  the  last 
triumph  of  human  knowledge,  and  in  it  a  wealth 
transcending  the  maddest  hopes  of  Avarice  had 
accumulated  in  an  Acropolis  of  SOLID  GOLD! 

There  in  the  frozen  north,  walled  in  by  ice, 
hidden  in  fogs,  almost  impenetrably  concealed  or 
protected  by  storm,  lay  this  incredible  continent 
of  wonders,  unsuspected  by  the  world  of  one  thou- 
sand million  people  around  it,  the  goal  of  whose 
ambition  it  had  already  reached,  the  course  of 
whose  evolution  it  illustrates,  and  who  had,  in  these 
latest  years,  begun  to  grope  blindly  for  its  guessed  at 
shores. 

AzAziEL  Link. 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Fiord 

How  well  I  remember  it!  The  solemn,  beautiful 
fiord,  framed  within  the  pine  tressed  walls,  flecked 
with  patches  of  sunlight,  where  its  waters  glistened 
with  beryl  hues.  Shaded  in  the  recesses  of  the 
cliffs  where  the  lustreless  flood  softly  murmured 
with  the  faintest  rhythmic  cadence  against  the 
rocky  rims,  immobile  and  caressed  as  they  had  been 
for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  and  in  a  few 
places  yielding  slowly  to  decay  in  shingled  beaches. 
And  the  music  of  nature  united  with  the  appeal  to 
the  eyes  of  color  and  form,  to  entrance  the  visitor. 

A  rushing  brook  singing  like  a  girl  hurrying  to 
some  holiday  joy,  broke  from  the  highlands,  a  sil- 
very thread,  then  a  braid  of  pearls,  then  a  sloping 
cataract  of  splintered  and  rainbowed  waves,  then 
in  silence  for  a  while,  catching  its  breath,  as  the  girl 
might  catch  it,  for  a  new  descent,  and  then  the 
renewed  song,  through  a  tiny  gorge,  its  jubilation 
softened  to  a  murmur,  and  then  the  flash  and 
chorus  of  its  outspread  ripples  as  it  leaped  into  the 
fiord.  And  that  was  the  light  soprano  of  the  music 
around  us,  and  under  it  rolled  the  bass  notes,  muted 
and  sfuggendo,  of  the  distant  waterfall — foss — at 
the  inland  head  of  the  fiord,  and  towards  which 
were  even  then  starting  the  pleasure  boats,  launches 
and  steam  yachts  of  the  tourists. 

The  sense  of  smell  contributed  its  intoxication  to 

39 


40  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

the  charmed  surrender  of  eye  and  ear,  for  there  was 
flung  down  from  the  tree-crowned  cliffs  the  scent  of 
wild  flowers  and  the  clean,  resinous  odors  of  the 
spruce.  The  wind  singing,  too,  like  a  chord  accom- 
paniment to  the  cheerful  ballad  of  the  brook,  and 
the  heavy  recitative  of  the  waterfall,  brought  this 
fragrance  to  us,  even  as  it  swept  in  capricious  rushes 
outward  over  the  fiord  to  its  gateway,  through 
which  the  distant  sea  lay  motionless  like  a  blazoned 
shield,  beyond  the  Skargaard. 

A  shelf  of  land,  dropping  off  in  a  slope  to  the 
waters  of  the  fiord  and  pierced  by  a  roadway  whose 
climbing  curves  led  at  last  to  the  summit  of  the 
cliffs,  and  which  ended  on  the  shore  in  a  dock,  then 
gay  with  the  summer  glories  of  young  girls  and  men, 
held  the  picturesque  red  houses  of  a  few  farmers, 
and  the  wandering  walls  of  the  comfortable  hotel. 
The  brilliant  green  of  the  cut  lawn,  like  an  enameled 
sheath,  covered  the  little  tableland,  and  venture- 
some tongues  and  ribbons  ran  flame-wise  up 
crannies,  ledges  and  narrow  glades,  to  be  lost  in  the 
shadows  of  the  firs  and  the  sprayed  and  silken 
birches  high  above. 

Round  a  table  on  the  broad  piazza  of  the  hotel,  in 
an  angle  where  we  looked  straight  through  the  eye- 
let of  the  rocks  to  the  sleeping  ocean,  a  gold-backed 
monster  like  a  leviathan  covering  the  earth,  slum- 
berously  heaving  in  the  sun,  I  was  sitting  with  three 
companions. 

There  was  my  best  friend,  Antoine  Goritz,  a  man 
thickly  bearded,  with  a  broad,  unwrinkled  brow 
sparingly  topped  by  light  wisps  of  straggling  hair, 
with  a  straight  Teutonic  nose,  deep-set  blue  eyes 
under  carven  ivory  lids,  beneath  eyebrows  deeper 
tinted  than  his  hair,  and  with  a  physical  frame, 
strong,  massive,  large,  effective,  perhaps  a  trifle 
overdrawn  in  its  suggestion  of  muscular  power. 

It  was  a  titan  mould,  but  the  face  above  it  was 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  41 

humorously  still  and  observant.  I  often  compared 
him  to  Sverdrup,  Nansen's  captain,  but  he  was  a 
bigger  man.  Like  him  he  possessed  the  docility  of 
a  child,  the  energy  of  a  giant.  Slow  of  speech 
ordinarily,  as  he  was  slow  of  movement,  but  in  stress 
and  excitement  convulsed  with  his  rapid,  headlong 
utterance,  and  rising  to  a  momentum  of  action  that 
was  irresistible  and  swift.  He  sat  upright  in  a  thick 
brown  plaid  with  a  blue  sailor's  scarf  around  his 
broad  neck  and  a  straw  hat  like  a  coracle  on  his  head. 

Next  to  him  sat  Professor  Hlmath  Bjornsen,  a 
very  tidy  man  of  ordinary  build  and  stature,  but 
oddly  distinguishable  by  his  abundant  red  hair,  the 
crab-like  protuberance  of  his  eyes  (he  wore  no 
glasses),  his  indented  lips,  which  looked  as  if 
stitched  up  in  sections,  also  undisguised  by  any 
covering  of  hair,  his  patulous,  projecting  ears.  His 
homeliness  was  saved  by  the  merit  of  cheerfulness 
at  least,  by  a  pug  nose,  a  rosy  complexion  and  a 
demure,  winning  sort  of  smile  that  was  generally  a 
propos  of  nothing,  but  was  retained  habitually  as 
nature's  protective  grace  against  the  premature 
prejudices  of  first  acquaintances.  Professor  Bjorn- 
sen was  a  man  learned  in  rocks,  minerals,  mines, 
geology,  the  hard  and  motionless  properties  of  the 
earth.  He  was  scrupulously  neat,  and  his  frequent 
inspection  of  himself,  especially  his  hands,  was 
equally  disconcerting  and  amusing. 

Spruce  Hopkins  was  the  next  man,  alongside  of 
myself,  and  probably  he  would  have  been  the  first 
man  whom  an  approaching  stranger  would  have 
looked  at  the  longest,  and  concerned  himself  with 
knowing  the  most.  He  was  a  Yankee,  an  American 
of  Americans,  but  of  that  Grecian  phase  which 
rejects  toto-coelo,  the  newspaper  type,  the  Brother 
Jonathan  caricature,  the  cheap  idiosyncracies  of  the 
paragraph  writer,  unassimilable  even  with  the 
more  credible  picture, 


42  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

of  one  who  wisely  schemed 
And  hostage  from  the  future  took, 
In  trained  thought  and  lore  of  book. 
Large-brained,  clear-eyed — of  such  as  he 
Shall  Freedom's  young  apostles  be. 

Spruce  Hopkins  boasted  no  particular  thrills. 
His  thoughts  followed  really  a  rather  narrow  gauge, 
and  he  could  weigh  with  premature  or  precocious 
carefulness  the  two  sides  of  a  practical  question 
when  his  decision  would  have  halted  perhaps  at 
alternatives  involving  the  emotions. 

He  had  a  superb  figure,  graceful,  plastic,  and 
eloquent  of  strength.  His  face  leaned,  so  to  speak, 
a  little  to  the  Brahmin  type,  but  any  introspection 
it  might  have  accompanied  or  suggested  was  lost  in 
the  radiance  of  the  eyes,  the  tempting  sweetness  of 
his  smile,  the  full-blown  glory  of  his  infectious 
laughter,  the  spiced  ofTerings  of  his  genial  tongue, 
the  crisp  charm  of  his  wavy,  glossy,  chestnut-tinted 
hair,  and  that  slight  but  irreducible  soupcon  of 
swagger  which  gave  him  distinction. 

And  then  there  was  myself;  you  see  me,  a  hardy 
man  (a  blush  rose  to  Erickson's  cheeks;  he  could 
not  overcome  some  apprehension  of  my  recalling  his 
recent  humiliation),  a  sailor  man  with  a  little  land 
schooling,  loving  yarns,  telling  yarns,  and — believ- 
ing 'em. 

"Why,  yes,  Erickson,"  I  interrupted,  "I  suppose 
you  have  been  quite  willing  to  believe  some  gilded 
tales  that  those  friends,  your  late  companions  here 
in  New  York,  told  you,  but  even  a  captivating 
gullibility  hardly  explains  how  a  young  giant  like 
you  were  found  on  your  back,  strapped  to  a  table, 
and  about  to  be  skewered  like  a  spitted  pig." 

"Ah,  sir,  patience.  You  shall  know  all,  but — at 
the  end,  at  the  end ;  even  if  I  could  resist  a  plausible 
story,  I  could  not  always  resist  what  goes  with  a 
good  story." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  43 

"SCHNAPPS?"  I  interjected. 

"Please,  sir,  patience.  It  is  worth  while.  I  have 
seen  what  no  living  man —  Perhaps  I  shall  never  see 
again  my  fellow  travelers,  the  three  who  sat  with 
me  on  the  hotel  porch  three  years  ago."  He  bent 
his  head,  his  bruised,  rough  hand  was  passed  over 
his  face,  and  I  thought  a  flare  of  flame,  shot  from  a 
cleaving  coal,  showed  on  it  the  glistening  trail  of 
moisture.  " — what  no  living  man  has  ever  seen,  a 
country  more  wonderful  than  dreams  or  legends  or 
fairy  stories  have  described  or  painted.  Oh,  sir,  in 
that  new  world  in  the  north,  something  of  the 
imagery  of  the  mythology  of  my  forefathers  seems 
repeated;  very  vaguely  indeed.  There  I  have  seen 
Nilfheim,  I  have  seen  Hwergelmer  and  Muspel- 
heim,  the  world  of  fire  and  light,  but  different,  yes 
very  different,  and  perhaps —  Well,  no,  not  Val- 
halla, but  something  like  Yggdrasill,  and  if  it  was 
not  Gladsheim,  what  was  it?" 

He  resumed. 

It  was  Professor  Bjornsen  speaking,  with  his  big 
hands  clutching  his  head  on  either  side,  buried 
indeed  in  the  luxuriant  wealth  of  his  ruddy  hair, 
with  his  staring  eyes  fixed  on  the  table  as  if  he  saw 
through  it,  looking  at  the  land  of  his  prophecies, 
while  we  all  listened,  with  our  eyes  measuring  the 
cliffs  up  to  the  green  fringes  that  ran,  a  dark  zone 
against  the  sky,  on  their  sun-blazed  peaks. 

"Signs,  signals,  came  to  the  explorers  of  Europe 
long  before  Columbus  set  his  face  westward ;  long 
before,  standing  at  the  peak  of  his  little  caravel,  he 
dared  the  perils  and  the  powers  of  the  bewitched 
western  ocean,  the  woods  and  weeds  of  Cipango 
floated  to  the  shores  of  Europe.  There  are  signs 
and  signals  now,  gentlemen";  the  Professor 
brought  his  long  fingers  down  with  a  smart,  start- 
ling slap  on  the  table  that  brought  our  own  hands 
nervously  to  the  sides  of  the  unsupported  glasses, 


44  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

lest  they  capsize  in  his  assault  of  enthusiasm,  while 
his  disordered  hair  flamed  aureole-like  over  his 
bulging  forehead,  beneath  which  smiled  exultantly 
his  piercing  green  eyes. 

"Signs  that  an  untouched  continent  is  hidden  in 
the  uncharted  wastes  of  the  western  Arctic  Sea. 
A  vast  area  of  waters,  a  blank  space  on  the  map 
lies  there,  but  that  is  simply  the  refuge,  for 
cartographic  lucidity,  of  our  ignorance.  What 
really  lies  there  is  reciprocal  on  the  west  of  Green- 
land on  the  east,  of  the  Franz  Josef  Archipelago  and 
Spitzbergen  north  of  us.  There  is  there  another 
large  fragment  of  that  original  circumpolar  con- 
tinent that  Science,  in  a  moment  of  intuitional  cer- 
tainty, points  to  as  the  source  of  the  world's  animal 
and  vegetable  life.  And  the  signs?  You  ask  me, 
your  faces  do,  what  they  are.  They  are  negative 
indeed  but  they  are  convincing.  Payer  reached 
82°5'  North  Latitude,  on  an  island.  Crown  Prince 
Rudolf's  Land,  and  still  further  north  he  thought  he 
could  see  an  extensive  tract  of  land  in  83°.  He 
called  it  Petermann's  Land.  Driftwood  on  the  east 
of  Greenland  comes  from  Siberia,  circuitously 
perhaps  around  the  pole,  not  across  it,  since  the 
'Fram'  drifted  from  the  north  of  Cape  Chelyuskin 
in  1893  to  north  of  Spitzbergen  in  1896.  The  wood 
is  Siberian  larch  and  alder  and  poplar.  Articles 
from  the  American  ship  'Jeannette,'  which  found- 
ered near  Bennett  Island,  had  taken  the  same 
course,  being  picked  up  on  the  east  coast  of  Green- 
land. Professor  Mohr  held  that  they  drifted  over 
the  pole.  Why  did  not  the  'Fram'  drift  over  the 
pole?  The  set  of  the  waters  that  way  is  obstructed, 
and  that  obstruction  is  a  continental  mass.  Noth- 
ing surer. 

"Dr.  Rink  has  reported  a  throwing  stick,  used  by 
the  Eskimos  in  hurling  their  bird  darts,  not  like 
those  used  by  the  Eskimosof  Greenland,  and  attribu- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  45 

ted  by  him  to  the  natives  of  Alaska.  The  path 
traversed  by  this  erratic  could  not  have  been 
directly  eastward  from  Alaska,  threading  an  im- 
penetrable and  devious  outlet  in  the  Canadian 
archipelago,  neither  was  it  over  the  pole,  as  any 
pathway  there  would,  constructively,  have  reached 
northern  and  not  eastern  Greenland.  Again  that 
invisible  obstruction,  as  patent,  as  real,  as  the 
influence  of  the  undiscovered  Neptune  in  the  per- 
turbations of  Uranus,  which  led  Leverrier  and 
Adams  to  make  their  prophetic  directions  for  its 
detection. 

"Sir  Allen  Young,  appreciating  the  nucleal  den- 
sity of  the  land  towards  the  pole,  and  speaking  of 
Nansen's  promised  attempt  to  drift  over  it,  said, 
'I  think  the  great  danger  to  contend  with  will  be  the 
land  in  nearly  every  direction  near  the  pole.  Most 
previous  navigators  seem  to  have  continued  to  see 
land,  again  and  again  farther  and  farther  north.' 

"Peary  has  seen  Krocker  Land.  Over  the  wes- 
tern verge  of  the  horizon  its  peaks  rose  temptingly 
to  invite  him  to  new  conquests.  That  was  a  seg- 
ment, a  tiny  fraction,  a  mere  hint  of  the  unknown 
vastnesses  beyond.  But  the  most  convincing 
symptoms — Ah,  a  feeble  word  to  designate  a  fact — 
of  this  continent  are  the  observations  of  the  United 
States'  meteorologists.  Dr.  R.  A.  Harris,  a  com- 
petent authority,  has  shown  that  the  tides,  mute 
but  eloquent  witnesses,  testify  to  its  existence. 
The  diurnal  tides  along  the  Asiatic  and  North 
American  coasts  are  not  what  they  would  be  if  an 
uninterrupted  sweep  over  the  Arctic  Sea  prevailed. 
Their  progress  is  delayed  and  along  narrow  channels 
is  accelerated  or  heightened,  as  past  the  shores  of 
Grant  Land.  Why?  Again  that  undiscovered 
country." 

"Harris,  a  clever  fellow.  Met  him  in  Washing- 
ton just  two  years  ago  this  autumn — a  crackerjack 


46  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

at  mathematical  guessing.  The  way  he  can  figure 
and  run  off  a  reel  of  equations  on  anything  from  the 
rate  sawdust  makes  in  a  wood  mill  to  a  mensuration 
of  the  average  dimensions  of  turnips  is  surprising. 
If  he  says  Krocker  Land  is  there — why,  then  I  guess 
IT  IS,"  was  Spruce  Hopkins'  comment,  while 
we  all  turned  our  eyes  from  the  cliffs  to  catch 
the  Professor's  rejoinder,  and  Goritz  leaned  to- 
wards him,  fixing  him  with  those  luminous  orbs 
of  his  that  betrayed  his  suppressed  excite- 
ment. 

"What  does  this  man  Harris  say?"  asked  Goritz. 

"He  says,"  answered  Bjornsen,  thrusting  his 
hands  in  his  pockets  after  he  had  looked  them  over 
in  his  habitual  manner  of  inspection,  "he  says  this. 
The  diurnal  tide  occurs  earlier  at  Point  Barrow  than 
at  Flaxman  Island;  the  diurnal  tide  or  wave  does 
not  have  approximately  its  theoretical  value;  at 
Bennett  Island,  north  of  Siberia,  and  at  Teplitz 
Bay,  Franz  Josef  Land,  the  range  of  the  diurnal 
wave  has  about  one-half  of  the  magnitude  which  the 
tidal  forces  acting  over  an  uninterrupted  Arctic 
basin  would  produce;  the  average  rise  and  fall  at 
Bennett  Island  is  2.5  feet,  but  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  semi-daily  tide  is  0.4  at  Point  Barrow,  and  0.5 
feet  at  Flaxman  Island.  And  he  makes  this  point." 
The  Professor  drew  a  red  chalk  from  his  vest  pocket, 
stood  up,  and  pushing  our  glasses  aside,  drew  a 
squarish  outline,  broader  on  one  side,  with  a  tail 
standing  out  at  its  lower  right-hand  corner.  He 
drew  a  circle  a  little  above  its  long  side,  and 
scribbled  Pole  within  it,  then  a  jagged  scrawl  to 
either  side,  representing  the  coasts  of  Asia  and 
America,  with  an  indentation  like  a  funnel  for 
Behring  Straits. 

"He  points  out  that  the  'Jeannette',  an  Ameri- 
can ship  sent  out  by  the  proprietors  of  the  New 
York  Herald,  stuck  in  the  ice  here",  he  jabbed  his 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  47 

crayon,  which  crumbled  into  grains  under  his  pres- 
sure, to  one  side  of  a  projecting  point  of  the  out- 
Hne,  "and  that  the  ice  drift  carried  her  eastward"; 
he  made  a  flourish  under  the  fascinating  trapezoid 
that  we  now  understood  embodied  the  suggested 
continent;  "while  the  'Pram'  stuck  here,"  again  a 
red  splotch  above  the  diagram,  "and  was  carried 
westward  toward  Greenland.  Again  why?  Be- 
cause at  a  critical  point  between  their  two  positions 
the  ice  current  is  divided  by  the  influence  of  a 
terminal  promontory  of  Krocker  Land.  It  splits, 
so  to  speak,  the  trend  over  the  pole  of  the  ice  drift, 
turning  one  arm  of  it  eastward,  the  other  westward. 
His  creative  vision  goes  farther.  A  point  of  this 
new  land  lies  just  north  of  Point  Barrow  in  Alaska, 
that  causes  the  westward  tide  at  the  point ;  and  he 
thinks  it  is  distant  from  Point  Barrow  five  or  six 
degrees  of  latitude,  350  to  420  miles.  Harris 
claims  the  ice  in  Beaufort  Sea,  north  of  Canada, 
here — "Another  flaming  signal  was  scrawled  on  the 
white  tablecloth  below  the  right  hand  corner  of  the 
fascinating  outline  that  now,  assuming  a  magical 
premonition  of  some  great  geographical  reality, 
kept  our  eyes  fastened  on  it  almost  as  if  it  might 
sprout  before  us  with  mimic  mountains  and  ice 
fields. 

"Harris  says  that  the  ice  in  Beaufort  Sea  does  not 
drift  freely  northward,  and  is  remarkable  for  its 
thickness  and  its  age.  He  says  the  ice  does  not 
move  eastward,  for  you  see,"  the  Professor  flung  his 
hands  over  the  cryptogram  on  the  tablecloth  like  an 
exorcising  magician,  "you  see  Beaufort  Sea  is  a  sea, 
land-locked  by  Krocker  Land,  that  here  approaches 
Banks  Island.     Are  you  convinced?" 

We  looked  at  each  other  a  trifle  slyly  and  disco n- 
certedly,  and  Goritz  laughed,  but  it  was  Spruce 
Hopkins  who  suddenly  turned  to  the  Professor, 
caught  his  arm  and  held  him  for  a  moment  without 


48  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

speaking  but  with  his  face  yielding  slowly  to  some 
growing  impression  of  wonder  within  him  until  he 
became  quite  grave. 

"You  see,  Professor,  I  feel  about  this  thing  this 
way.  I  guess  you're  not  far  wrong  about  this  new 
land;  it's  exciting  enough  to  think  of  it.  I  calcu- 
lated there  was  room  up  there  for  a  little  more 
glory  after  I  heard  your  lecture  before  the  Philo- 
sophical Society  at  Christiania  last  November; 
glory  for  some  of  us,  such  as  Peary  and  Amundsen, 
Scott,  Shackleton,  Nansen,  Stefansson,  have  won, 
and  I  thought  it  over.  I  fell  in  with  Erickson  and 
Goritz  at  Stockholm  and  we  canvassed  the  matter, 
sort  o'  stuck  our  heads  together  and  thought  it  out; 
then  we  sent  for  you,  and  the  demonstration  seems 
straight  enough.  Some  rigmarole!  Don't  get 
angry  Professor,  that's  my  way  and,  anyhow,  I'm 
not  going  back  on  you,  not  so  much  as  the  thickness 
of  a  flea's  ear,  and  I  think  you'll  allow  that  can't 
count;  but  the  more  I  looked  at  the  matter  the 
more  I  wondered  if  there  was  anything  about  it  the 
least  bit  more  substantial  than  glory. 

"And  that  wasn't  all,  either.  I  think  I'd  like  to 
get  back  again." 

"Yes,  Professor,"  it  was  Goritz  speaking,  with 
his  head  tilted  back,  as  he  followed  the  scurrying 
flight  of  sparrows  amid  the  tasseled  larches  of  the 
opposite  gaard,  "dead  bodies  are  rather  indifferent 
to  glory.  If  we  are  great  enough  to  get  there,  we 
we  must  be  great  enough  to  get  back.  It  would  be 
no  consolation  for  us  to  have  our  relatives  and 
friends  sing; 

'Sa  vandra  vara  stora  man 
Fran  Ijuset  ned  til  skuggan.'  "  * 

Hopkins  smiled;  he  was  neither  hurt  nor  con- 
fused.    He  shook  his  head   assentingly,   and   his 

♦Thus  our  great  men  wander  from  the  light  down  into  the  shades. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  49 

faint  drawl  prolonged  itself  somewhat  in  his  mock- 
ing rejoinder: 

"That's  all  right,  Goritz.  As  a  corpse  you  prob- 
ably would  attract  a  little  more  notice  than  either 
Erickson  or  myself,  but  buried  fathoms  deep  in  an 
Arctic  sea,  or  just  rolled  over  by  a  nameless  glacier 
in  this  nameless  land,  your  own  chances  for  a  news- 
paper obituary  might  shrink  to  very  small  propor- 
tions. You  might  not  even  have  your  dimensions 
mentioned." 

Goritz  looked  approvingly  at  the  American,  and 
benignantly  raised  his  hat  and  bowed. 

But  the  impatient  Professor  was  in  his  chair,  his 
hands  spread  out  before  him;  his  smile  had 
vanished,  his  encroaching  eyes  had  retreated,  his 
serrated  lips  were  puckered,  his  eyebrows  frowned, 
and  altogether  he  assumed  such  a  sudden  porten- 
tousness  of  suppressed  eagerness  and  concealed 
thought  that  we  rocked  with  delight  and  the 
momentary  restraint  was  forgotten.  And  with  our 
laughter  there  stole  back  into  the  Professor's  face 
its  usual  smile,  but  it  had  enigmatically  deepened 
into  a  sort  of  mute  expostulation. 

"Listen,"  he  said,  and  he  waved  his  hands,  invit- 
ing us  to  a  closer  attention;  his  voice  fell;  I 
thought  his  peering  eyes  glanced  to  either  side  to 
avert  the  proximity  of  eavesdroppers.  "There  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that  this  new  world  of  the 
north  is  neither  inclement  nor  barren.  I  believe  it 
is  a  place  of  wonders;  in  it  rest  secrets,  REVELA- 
TIONS." There  was  now  a  sorcery  in  the  Pro- 
fessor's voice  that  made  us  lean  toward  him,  draw- 
ing the  circle  a  little  closer,  like  conspirators  over 
an  incantation.  "What  they  are  no  once  can  tell. 
You  ask.  Why?  I  believe  this.  I  can  hardly 
explain;  my  faith  in  this  is  a  growth,  a  coalescence 
of  many  strands  of  feeling  and  many  lines  of  study. 
My  conviction  is  complete.     I  admit  that  extrinsi- 


so  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

cally,  as  I  may  say,  it  is  unreasonable;  intrinsically 
it  is  now  as  inexpugnable  as  a  theorem  from  Euclid, 
or  the  evidence  of  my  own  senses. 

"That  there  is  a  new  world  south  of  the  pole  is 
maintained  by  Science;  it  is  the  unalterable  belief 
of  the  explorers,  the  hydrographers,  the  geogra- 
phers. But  what  may  that  world  be  like? 
What  was  it  like?  Long  millions  and  millions  of 
years  before  our  time  the  Arctic  north  was  the 
procreant  cradle  of  ALL  LIFE!  From  it  streamed 
the  currents  of  animal  and  vegetable  creation;  it 
was  warm;  forests  of  palms  flourished  along  river 
and  lake-side,  and  within  them  roamed  the  crea- 
tures of  tropical  or  semi-tropical  climates.  Paleon- 
tologists from  Saporta  to  Wieland,  from  Keerl  to 
Heer  have  pointed  this  out,  with  an  emphasis  that 
has  varied  with  temperament  or  knowledge,  from 
conviction  to  surmise.  G.  Hilton  Scribner,  a  clever 
American  litterateur  says" — the  Professor  ludi- 
crously grasped  for  something  in  an  inner  coat 
pocket  and  revealed  a  little  book,  exquisitely 
bound,  of  scraps  and  extracts,  and  read  from  a 
page  whose  smoothness  he  had  marred  by  fold- 
ing a  leaf — "he  says,  'thus  the  Arctic  zone,  which 
was  earliest  in  cooling  down  to  the  first  and 
highest  heat  degree  in  the  great  life-gamut  was 
also  the  first  to  become  fertile,  first  to  bear  life, 
and  first  to  send  forth  her  progeny  over  the 
earth.' 

"And  Wieland,  a  remarkable  Yale  scholar,  an 
authority  on  fossil  cycads  and  Chelonia,  the  latest 
to  speculate  authoritatively  along  this  line,  writes" 
— another  creased  page  was  turned  to — "  'in  a  word, 
that  the  great  evolutionary  Schauplatz  was  boreal 
is  possible  from  the  astronomical  relations,  probable 
from  physical  facts,  and  rendered  an  established 
certainty  by  the  unheralded  synchronous  appear- 
ance of  the  main  groups  of  animals  and  plants  on 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  51 

both  sides  of  the  great  oceans  throughout  post- 
Paleozoic  time.'  " 

"But  Professor,"  it  was  my  remonstrance  that 
now  interrupted  him,  "that  was  millions  of  years 
ago.  It's  a  dead  world  up  there.  Surely  you  don't 
think—" 

The  Professor  broke  in  with  a  deprecatory 
gesture  of  regret  at  his  own  impatience.  "I  know. 
True,  true,  for  the  most  part,  but  perhaps  not  for 
all — not  for  all.     It's  a  deep  matter." 

Professor  Bjornsen's  eyes  were  glistening  with 
enthusiasm;  his  manner  became  extravagantly 
mysterious,  and  his  words  boiled  out  feverishly 
from  his  scarred  lips.  "The  north,  to  whose 
enchantment  the  whole  world  bows;  a  strange, 
magical  region,  lit  by  the  supernal  splendors  of 
heavenly  lights,  and  wrapped  in  eternal  snows,  was 
the  Eden  of  our  race.  It  was  that  navel  of  the 
world  related  in  all  mythologies  from  India  to 
Greece,  from  Japan  to  Scandinavia;  it  was  the 
Paradisaic  earth  center,  the  fecund  source  of  every 
manner  of  life,  endowed  by  the  Creator  with 
original  unrestrained  powers  of  exuberance.  Here 
man  originated;  here  was  his  primal  home,  here 
his  first  estate,  dressed  as  he  was  in  every  faculty 
of  mind,  and  enriched  by  all  the  gifts  of  nature. 
As  President  Warren,  another  American,  eloquently 
wrote  twenty-six  years  ago — " 

Again  the  Professor  dove  into  his  pocket,  pro- 
duced his  amazing  little  scrapbook,  while  we  all 
gazed  at  the  excited  gentleman  with  a  new  fasci- 
nation and  astonishment.  Here  was  the  man  of 
crystals  and  mensuration,  of  ores,  adits,  drifts  and 
strata,  riding  the  high  horse  of  mystical  and  religious 
analogy,  and  somehow  we  felt  ourselves  drawn 
into  the  vortex  of  his  cerebral  excitement!  We 
were  quite  dazed  in  a  way,  and  yet  felt  an  elation 
that  kept  us  spellbound. 


52  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"Ah,  here  it  is.  He  wrote,  President  Warren, 
'the  pole  symbolizes  Cardo,  Atlas,  Meru,  Hara- 
berezaiti,  Kharsak-Kurra,  every  fabulous  mountain 
on  whose  top  the  sky  pivots  itself,  and  around 
which  all  the  heavenly  bodies  ceaselessly  revolve.' 

"Assume  this;  assume  that  here  the  finger  of 
God  first  impressed  this  insensate  whirling  globe  of 
unconscious  matter  with  the  touch  and  promise  of 
life  and  Mind.  Is  it  likely  that  all  vestiges,  all 
signs,  all  remainders  of  that  consecrated  first  en- 
dowment should  have  quite  disappeared,  suc- 
cumbed ingloriously  to  the  stiffening  embrace  of 
cold,  congealed  in  an  eternal  sleep  beneath  the 
glaciers  and  the  snows?  I  think  not,  my  friends, 
/  think  not.'' 

"But,"  it  was  the  protesting  voice  of  Goritz  who 
now  voiced  our  incredulity,  "haven't  the  expedi- 
tionists, the  geographers,  the  explorers — hasn't 
everything  we  have  been  told,  everything  we  have 
read,  all  we  know  about  it,  and  that's  a  good  deal, 
from  Franklin  to  Peary  made  it  clear  that  at  the 
pole  there  is  nothing  but  death,  desolation,  and 
ice.'^ 

"Antoine!"  Here  the  Professor  turned  ab- 
ruptly to  the  big  Dane,  thrusting  his  umbrageous 
crown  of  red  hair  almost  into  the  thin  locks  of  his 
friend,  and  whispered  hoarsely,  "Ah!  Antoine,  the 
secrets  are  hidden  in  that  uncharted  land  beyond 
the  ice  packs  north  of  Point  Barrow.  The  reserva- 
tions of  life  are  there.  You  have  all  heard,"  the 
rufous  glory  now  moved  towards  Hopkins  and  my- 
self, "of  Symmes  Hole?  Of  course  you  shrug  your 
shoulders;  it  was  preternatural  simplicity  you  say, 
the  mad  dream  of  a  fool,  uproariously  derided. 
Yes!  Symmes  was  not  a  fool ;  he  was  a  brave  man,  a 
soldier,  chasing  a  reality  through  the  distortions  of 
an  hallucination.  There  is  no  hole;  the  earth  is 
not  hollow,  but — there  is  a  depression ;   there  must 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  53 

be.  The  depression  is  at  the  North  Pole  some- 
where. It  has  not  been  found,  and  the  Arctic  seas 
have  been  parcoiirired  by  explorers,  as  you  notice, 
Goritz.  The  depression  is  Krocker  Land.  If  pro- 
found its  climate  is  temperate.  Life,  the  remnants 
of  its  first  evolutionary  phases,  may  be  there — but 
mark  me!"  The  Professor  positively  dilated, 
everything  in  him  enlarged  as  if  his  bounding  heart 
sent  fuller  currents  of  blood  to  all  its  outposts;  his 
eyes  were  refulgent;  I  thought  they  were  an 
emerald  green;  his  hair  rose  in  the  thrill  of  his 
vaticination  and  his  mouth  opened  into  a  vast 
exclamatory  rictus,  in  which  flashed  his  big  white 
incisors  like  diminutive  tusks.  "Mark  me,  there 
too  will  be  found  the  last  evolutionary  phases  of 
the  human  race!" 

Here  was  a  climax,  and  the  mental  stupifaction 
of  the  Professor's  audience  was  exactly  reflected  in 
the  prolonged  silence  that  ensued.  It  was  enter- 
taining, however,  to  watch  Spruce  Hopkins'  fixed, 
expressionless  perusal  of  the  Professor's  face,  and 
the  immobile  glory  in  the  Professor's  answering 
stare.     Hopkins  spoke  first: 

"Well!  I  like  your  certainty  about  that  depres- 
sion. Prof.  Can't  see  it  noway.  You're  making 
things  interesting  enough,  but  surely  that  depres- 
sion isn't  the  gospel  truth.     Is  it?" 

The  Professor  relaxed;  he  laughed,  and  his 
laugh  was  the  most  curious  blend  of  a  chuckle  and 
a  whistle,  utterly  impossible  to  describe  except  by 
reproduction.  It  always  affected  Hopkins  hilari- 
ously; he  said  the  two  elements  in  the  Professor's 
laugh  were  satisfaction  and  astonishment;  the 
chuckle  meant  the  first,  the  whistle  the  second,  and 
the  state  of  the  Professor's  mind  could  be  well 
gauged  from  the  predominance  of  one  or  the 
other.     Just  then  the  chuckle  had  the  best  of  it. 

"Mr.  Hopkins,"  he  said,  "you  are  a  very  intelli- 


54  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

gent  man.  Don't  you  see  that  a  rotating  and 
solidifying  viscosity  cannot  become  solid  without 
forming  a  pitted  polar  extremity?" 

Hopkins  withstood  this  assault  with  admirable 
stolidity;    he  even  looked  injured. 

"My  dear  Professor;  really  your  statement  is 
too  simply  put  to  appeal  to  the  complicated  con- 
volutions of  my  gray  matter.  Your  manner  is 
juvenile.  Such  a  subject  should  be  treated  in  a 
becoming  obscurity  of  terms." 

After  our  amusement  had  subsided,  Bjornsen 
explained  his  view.  It  was  easily  understood. 
The  earth  had  cooled  down  from  some  initial 
gaseous  or  lava-like  stage,  and,  if  the  congelation 
had  not  progressed  far  or  fast  enough  at  the  poles, 
centrifugal  force  at  the  equator  would  have  with- 
drawn enough  matter  to  effect  a  depletion  at  one 
pole  or  the  other,  with  the  consequent  result  (I  re- 
call how  particular  the  Professor  was  over  this 
point)  of  forming  a  graduated,  evenly  rounded  and 
smoothish  concavity,  if  the  polar  areas  were  not 
too  rigidly  fixed;  or  a  broken,  step-like  succession 
of  terraces  if  they  were.  Later  we  were  triumph- 
antly reminded  by  the  Professor  of  this  prediction. 
Then  too  he  involved  his  theory  with  demonstra- 
tions of  the  vertical  effect  of  rotation,  producing 
inverted  cones  or  funnels  in  liquids,  as  is  familiarly 
seen  in  the  discharging  contents  of  a  washbasin. 
We  were  not  convinced,  and  our  evident  apathy  or 
dissidence  chilled  the  Professor  into  a  taciturnity 
from  which  he  was  scarcely  aroused  when  cries  from 
the  water's  edge  of  the  fiord  announced  the  return 
of  a  fishing  fleet,  a  phalanx  of  jaegts,  the  single 
masted,  square  sailed,  sturdy  boats  familiar  to 
tourists  in  sea  journeys  along  the  fair  Norwegian 
shores.  It  was  welcomed  with  shouts  and  saluta- 
tions, and  the  waving  of  flags  and  handkerchiefs,  in 
which  we  joined. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  55 

But  the  hidden  springs  of  wonderment,  the 
latent  impulse  in  young,  strong  men  for  adventure, 
discovery,  perhaps  some  marvelous  realization  of 
the  unknown,  had  been  stirred  within  us.  The 
Professor  would  have  been  gratified  if  he  had 
known  how  restlessly  Goritz  and  myself  rolled 
about  in  our  beds  that  night,  or  how  with  sleepless 
eyes,  flat  on  our  backs,  we  rehearsed  his  strange 
statements,  or  in  dreams  encountered  polar  bears, 
threading  our  way  through  devious  leads  to  the 
wintry  coasts  of  a  NEW  CONTINENT.  The 
imagery  of  the  north  was  familiar  to  us.  We  had 
both  visited  Spitzbergen  and  the  Franz  Josef 
Archipelago.  As  Hopkins  had  said,  we  had  met 
him  at  Stockholm  and  discussed  together  the  sen- 
sation of  the  hour,  Bjornsen's  lecture  at  Christi- 
ania.  We  were  all  three  of  us  idlers — I  by  compul- 
sion— but  firm  in  body,  ambitious  in  spirit,  and 
half  exasperated  at  our  uselessness  in  the  world's 
affairs.  Goritz  was  a  rich  man,  an  only  son,  heir  to 
the  fortune  of  a  successful  fish  merchant  in  Stock- 
holm; I  had  a  bare  competency,  and  Spruce  Hop- 
kins, a  vagabond  American,  seeing  the  world  but 
yearning  for  sterner  work,  had  already  gained  in 
Europe  an  unenviable  reputation  for  reckless 
extravagance.  It  was  at  Hopkins*  suggestion  that 
we  had  invited  the  Professor  to  meet  us  at  the 
fiord,  and  we  were  all  wondering  how  far  we  might 
go  in  this  strange  experiment  of  finding  Krocker 
Land.     Should  we  go  at  all? 

Whatever  satisfaction  the  Professor  might  have 
felt  over  Goritz's  and  my  own  agitation,  his  most 
sanguine  hopes  of  producing  an  impression  would 
have  been  inflamed  to  exultation  had  he  known 
that  the  Yankee  had  not  slept  a  wink,  had  not  taken 
off  his  clothes,  but  had  just,  as  he  characterized  it, 
"stalled  on  everything,"  until  he  got  his  bearings 
on  this  "new  stunt." 


56  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

The  Professor's  equanimity  was  restored  when 
we  met  him  in  the  diningroom  at  breakfast  the 
following  morning,  and  he  most  good-naturedly 
accepted  professions  of  contrition  at  our  mental 
obduracy.  But  it  was  the  American  who  con- 
founded him  by  his  sudden  determination  and  a 
precipitant  proposition  to  "get  away  on  the  first 
tide." 

"Prof.,"  he  exclaimed  clapping  the  smaller  man 
on  the  shoulder  with  a  cordial  gaiety  that  shocked 
Goritz,  "I'm  willing  to  take  the  chance.  It's  a 
big  stake  to  win,  though,"  his  whimsical  smile  pro- 
pitiated the  Professor  completely.  "I'm  not 
buffaloed  on  all  your  talk  about  the  tropical  climate 
we're  likely  to  meet.  Of  course,  I've  looked  into 
the  matter  a  little,  on  my  own  hook,  and  just  now 
the  plan  of  action  is  something  like  this.  These 
two  good  friends,"  he  waved  his  hands  genially 
toward  Goritz  and  myself,  "know  a  good  deal  about 
zero  temperatures,  polar  bears,  walrus,  starvation 
and  ice  floes;  you  have  surveyed  Spitzbergen,  and 
as  for  myself —  Well,  honestly,  I'm  a  tenderfoot 
but  young,  hardy,  sound  as  a  steel  rail,  a  good  shot, 
a  prize  rower,  and  once  Prof.,  take  it  from  me,  I 
strangled  a  mad  dog  with  these  hands." 

Hopkins  never  looked  handsomer  than  at  that 
moment,  his  face  burning  with  an  expectant  eager- 
ness, the  color  rising  to  his  temples  beneath  the 
waves  of  chestnut  hair,  his  frame  and  figure  like 
an  Achilles. 

The  Professor  nodded  his  approval  and  assent. 

' 'We'll  make  a  strong  quartette ;  quite  enough  for 
the  jaunt.  These  big  outfits  are  a  blunder.  I've 
always  thought  that  was  the  mistake  the  English 
made.  Plenty  of  dogs,  rations  and  a  few  mouths 
go  farther,  with  less  strain  and  less  risk.  And 
another  thing,  friends,"  he  wheeled  round  from 
the  Professor,  and  addressed  us,  "no  big  ship,  no 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  57 

'Fram',  no  'Roosevelt.'  We'll  get  the  stiffest  and 
most  flexible  and  biggest  wooden  naphtha  launch 
that  can  be  made;  stock  her;  carry  her  up  on  a 
hired  whaler  from  San  Francisco,  bunk  at  Point 
Barrow,  pick  our  best  chance  through  the  leads  in 
the  open  weather,  and  then  with  dogs,  sleds,  and 
kayaks,  take  to  the  main  ice  and  scoot  for  the  happy 
land  of — Krocker!    Eh?" 

Goritz  and  I  heard  the  extraordinary  daredevil 
plan  with  consternation.  It  seemed  the  limit  of 
foolishness,  and  absurdly  ignorant.  We  waited  for 
the  inevitable  crushing  denunciation  of  such  folly 
from  the  informed  lips  of  the  Professor.  To  our 
amazement  the  Professor  grew  radiant,  seized 
Hopkins'  hands,  shaking  them  vigorously,  his  pop- 
eyes  starting  out  with  the  most  amiable  encourage- 
ment, while  his  beaming  smile  endorsed  Hopkins' 
lunacy  with  mad  enthusiasm. 

"Right,  Mr.  Hopkins!  Right — the  very  thing. 
No  reserve,  no  retreat,  no  store  ship  is  necessary. 
I  had  convinced  myself  of  the  absolute  propriety  of 
just  such  a  course  of  action,  but  I  expected  to  find 
it  a  hopeless  task  to  persuade  anyone  to  believe  me. 
Krocker  Land  will  supply  us  with  everything,  and 
the  ice  course  will  be  far  more  simple  and  easy  than 
Nansen's  trip  from  86°  to  Franz  Josef  Land,  or 
Peary's  over  North  Greenland;  a  straight-away 
run  with  a  few  water  breaks.  No  great  hardships. 
At  least,"  and  the  Professor  in  a  burst  of  audacious 
nonchalance  knocked  over  a  few  glasses  and  a  water 
carafe  in  his  swinging  ambulations,  "none  greater 
than  the  ordinary  experiences  of  an  Arctic  traveler. 
I  congratulate  you,  Mr.  Hopkins,  on  your  per- 
spicacity— American  shrewdness.  Ah!  American 
—what  you  call  GAMENESS.  Eh?  Let  me 
assure  you  that  had  you  been  a  hardened,  experi- 
enced North  Pole  explorer  you  would  never  have 
hit  on  this;   NEVER.     You'd  have  stuck  to  the  old 


58  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

plans.  And  the  only  reason  you  are  right  now  is 
that  Krocker  Land  is  an  exceptional  proposition, 
to  be  negotiated  by  exceptional  methods.  I 
promise  you   exceptional   results." 

For  a  few  moments  Goritz  and  I  were  dumb  with 
astonishment,  and  I  think  Goritz  was  almost 
choking  with  indignation.  Somehow  he  suppressed 
his  threatening  outbreak  and  only  muttered,  "I 
suppose  we  will  nev'er  want  to  come  back — never 
need  to?" 

A  ripple  of  comic  commiseration  crossed  Hop- 
kins' face: 

"Come  now,  Goritz.  WHERE  I  COME  BACK 
is  just  here, 

'Sa  vandra  vara  stora  man 
Fran  Ijuset  ned  til  skiiggan.'  " 

The  situation  was  so  funny,  with  that  tantaliz- 
ingly  humorous  face  of  the  Professor  looking  on  in 
perplexity,  that  Goritz  burst  into  laughter,  in  which 
I  joined,  and  his  evanescent  rage  was  swept  away. 

But  the  Professor  answered  his  implied  sarcasm 
quite  literally. 

"Antoine,"  he  said,  both  hands  raised  implor- 
ingly, "trust  me;  we  shall  find  food  in  Krocker 
Land,  an  abundance;  the  launch  can  return  to 
Point  Barrow  with  a  small  crew,  and  when  we  want 
it  on  our  return — why — " 

His  indecision  or  uncertainty  or  the  blankness 
of  his  mind  about  it  was  quickly  relieved  by  Goritz. 

"We'll  send  a  telegram  ordering  it  over,  and 
wait — for  it?" 

"Oh  it's  no  joke  Goritz" — Goritz  admitted 
sotto  voce  that  it  certainly  was  not.  "We  can  get 
back  without  it,  our  kayaks  will  answer.  And  you 
forget  the  People  of  Krocker  Land." 

"Why  Professor,"  I  protested,  "we  haven't 
heard  of  them  before." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  59 

The  Professor  assumed  a  surprised  air,  became 
portentously  solemn,  and  then — I  never  felt  quite 
certain  whether  he  actually  winked  at  Hopkins  or 
not — gravely  answered. 

"The  people  of  Krocker  Land,  Erickson,  are  an 
assured  certainty.  An  unpeopled  continent  is  as 
much  a  lusus  naturae  as  an  unfilled  vacuum." 

"Certainly,  Erickson.  Didn't  you  know  that? 
Somebody  must  be  provided  to  pocket  the  revenues 
from  whale  blubber  and  walrus  ivory,  not  to  men- 
tion the  conservation  bureau  for  glaciers,  the  out- 
put of  icebergs,  and  the  meteorological  corps  for  the 
standardization  of  blizzards,"  and  Hopkins  hid  his 
face  in  his  hands  to  stifle  his  screaming  mirth. 

But  the  Professor  was  neither  ruffled  nor  amused ; 
he  went  on  oracularly: 

"Erickson,  the  expectation  is  a  little  discourag- 
ing. Well  V\\  say  from  your  point  of  view  it  is 
almost  impossible  of  belief  that  an  unknown  people 
exists  in  an  unknown  land  near  the  North  Pole. 
Now  Stefansson's  discovery  of  the  so-called  Blond 
Eskimos  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  confidence  in 
this  matter.  It  rests  upon  a  broad  deduction,  an 
a  priori  necessary  assumption.  If  the  original 
Eden,  the  primitive  center  of  dispersion,  on  the 
basis  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race — if — " 

Behind  the  Professor,  whose  labyrinthine  locu- 
tion, sounding  higher  and  higher,  was  attracting 
some  general  attention  among  the  guests  of  the 
hotel,  stood  Hopkins  with  two  tumblers  of  water  in 
his  hands.  He  raised  them  suddenly  above  his 
head  and  dropped  them.  The  crash  was  startling, 
and  it  was  followed  by  an  equally  unexpected  yell 
of  pain  from  Hopkins,  who  apparently  slipped,  fell, 
seized  the  tablecloth  and  dragged  to  the  floor  a 
varied  array  of  glassware  and  cutlery  in  a  clatter 
that  was  deafening. 

Confusion,  explanations,  reparation  and  a  tumult 


60  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

of  amusement  followed,  and  in  it  disappeared  the 
Professor's  voluminous  harangue.  It  was  never 
resumed. 

Hopkins  recovered  his  seriousness,  and  we 
attacked  the  novel  project  he  had  suggested, 
critically.  All  that  next  day  we  argued  over  it, 
thrashing  it  out  with  the  illuminative  references 
Goritz,  the  Professor  and  myself  could  make  to  our 
own  experiences,  Hopkins  listening  and  pertinaci- 
ously sticking  to  his  original  suggestions.  His 
plan  grew  more  and  more  attractive;  its  reason- 
ableness developed  more  and  more  under  examina- 
tion. Of  course  all  four  of  us  were  now  thoroughly 
excited;  the  lure  of  discovery  almost  maddened  us, 
and  the  necromantic  charm  of  the  Professor's  amaz- 
ing predictions,  which  we  actually  were  unwilling  to 
resist,  instilled  in  us  the  wayward  and  fantastic 
hope  that  we  were  on  the  verge  of  a  world-con- 
vulsing disclosure.    We  have  not  been  disappointed. 

The  project  finally  took  this  shape :  Hopkins  and 
Goritz  volunteered  to  bear  all  the  expenses  con- 
nected with  the  expedition;  Hopkins  would  go  to 
America,  consult  naval  architects,  and  have  a 
naphtha-propelled  launch  devised,  combining,  as 
to  its  hull,  features  of  the  "Fram"  and  "Roose- 
velt" in  a  diminutive  way.  Goritz  would  follow 
and  buy  the  supplies,  clothing  and  equipment. 
Then  would  come  the  Professor  with  instruments 
and  books,  and  finally  myself  with  three  chosen 
men — Hopkins  demanded  they  should  be  selected 
in  America — who  would  be  the  captain,  engineer 
and  crew  of  the  launch  on  its  return  to  Point 
Barrow,  and  who  would  look  for  us  the  next  sum- 
mer. How  preposterously  sure  we  were  that  we 
would  find  land  and  game!  But  how  ineffectually 
paltry  after  all  were  our  expectations  compared  to 
the    reality. 

When  everything  was  ready — the  end  of  a  year's 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  61 

time  was  fixed  for  the  date  of  our  departure — we 
would  have  the  launch  set  amidships  on  a  whaler, 
and  sail  for  Point  Barrow,  our  prospective  head- 
quarters on  the  North  American  continent. 

The  last  question  Hopkins  put  to  the  Professor 
before  we  parted  was  about  the  mineral  wealth  of 
the  new  land,  which  had  now  incorporated  its 
actuality  with  every  sleeping  and  waking  moment, 
seeming  as  certain  as  any  other  unvisited  realm  of 
Earth  which  we  had  seen  on  maps,  but  never 
visited. 

Of  course  the  Professor  was  quite  equal  to  this 
demand  upon  his  imagination. 

"Mineral  wealth?  Probably  immense.  The 
mother  lodes  of  the  gold  of  Alaska  have  never  been 
found.  They  lie  north  of  Alaska;  the  geological 
extension  of  the  mineral  deposits  of  Alaska  is 
naturally  in  that  direction,  and  the  enrichment  of 
the  primary  crystallines  with  the  precious  metals 
can  be  reasonably  asserted  to  surpass  the  mythical 
values  of  Golconda  or  California." 

"That  suits  we,"  was  Hopkins'  laconic  comment. 

At  last  the  whole  scheme  was  pretty  thoroughly 
worked  out,  down  to  its  details.  Correspondence 
would  be  maintained  during  the  summer.  The 
Professor  left  for  Christiania,  Goritz  and  myself  for 
Stockholm,  and  Hopkins  steamed  away  to  Hull  on 
the  English  ship  "North  Cape."  Our  conference 
had  lasted  just  a  week. 

How  wonderfully  lovely  was  the  day  and  scene 
when  he  left  us  that  June  morning  three  years  ago. 
If  portents  of  our  success  could  be  discerned  in  its 
delicious,  enveloping  glory  of  light  and  beauty, 
then  surely  we  might  be  hopeful.  The  great  gulls 
were  sweeping  with  deep  undulations  through  the 
upper  sky,  exulting  in  their  splendid  power,  the 
summer  wind  faintly  stirred  the  dark  spruces, 
whose  gentle  expostulation  at  its  intrusion  reached 


62  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

us  with  a  sound  like  the  washing  of  waves  on  a  far- 
away shore.  The  granite  rocks  of  peak  and  cHff 
flashed  back  the  unchecked  sunHght;  the  road, 
Hke  a  white  ribbon,  spun  its  loops  to  and  fro  over 
the  hillside,  through  meads  where  the  glistening  red 
farm  houses  stood,  that  seemed  like  rubies  set  in  an 
emerald  shield  while  the  waters  of  the  fiord 
slumbered  at  our  feet,  a  liquid  mass  of  beryl. 

It  now  seems  to  me  as  if  a  quarter  of  a  century 
had  passed  since  then.  And,  if  events  are  the 
measure  of  duration  to  the  subjective  sense,  it 
might  seem  even  farther  away.  I  recall  Spruce 
Hopkins,  radiant  and  handsome,  amid  a  throng  of 
new  acquaintances — he  gathered  friends  about  him 
as  frankly  and  quickly  as  roses  attract  bees — among 
whom  not  a  few  young  women  offered  him  their 
mute  but  eloquent  admiration;  I  remember  him 
leaning  over  the  rail  of  the  steamer's  deck  and  re- 
citing in  a  rollicking  drawl : 

"When  the  sea  rolled  its  fathomless  billows 

Across  the  broad  plains  of  Nebraska; 

When  around  the  North  Pole  grew  bananas 
and  willows. 

And  mastodons  fought  with  the  great  arma- 
dillos, 

For  the  pine-apples  grown  in  Alaska." 

(Editorial  Apology.  The  foregoing  chapter  in 
its  diction  and  in  certain  studied  phases  of  con- 
struction will  disturb  the  reader's  sense  of  con- 
gruity,  perhaps.  He  will  be  inclined  to  doubt  its 
authenticity  as  the  exact  narrative  of  Alfred  Erick- 
son.  The  suspicion  is  partly  creditable  to  his 
literary  acumen.  The  editor  admits  substantial 
emendations  useful  for  the  purpose  of  imparting  a 
literary    atmosphere.) 


CHAPTER  II 
Point  Barrow 

We  were  all  aboard  the  steam  whaler  "Astrum" 
in  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  and  with  us  a  marvel 
of  compact  maritime  construction,  our  naphtha 
launch  ''Pluto.''  Hopkins  suggested  the  name  on 
the  satisfactory-  ground  that  we  were  likely  to  have 
"a  hell  of  a  time."  We  had  worked  ourselves  up 
to  the  most  supreme  height  of  confidence  and 
enthusiasm.  The  Professor  was  in  a  sort  of 
demented  state  of  expectation ;  Hopkins  furiously 
asserted  the  name  of  Christopher  Columbus  would 
now  be  forgotten  in  the  new  fame  to  be  allotted  to 
us,  "the  Arctic  Argonauts,"  and  finally  Goritz  and 
myself  succumbed  to  a  peculiar  feeling  of  predes- 
tination. 

Captain  Coogan  of  the  "Astrum"  knew  nothing 
of  our  proposed  destination.  It  was  a  stipulation 
made  by  Hopkins  that  nothing  on  that  point  was  to 
be  discussed,  until  we  reached  Point  Barrow — if  we 
were  to  reach  it — and  the  services  of  Captain  Coo- 
gan and  his  selected  crew — not  the  usual  polyglot 
assemblage  of  ethnic  odds  and  ends — were  uncon- 
ditionally ours  up  to  that  moment.  The  tempta- 
tions of  whaling  were  to  be  absolutely  eschewed 
until  we  had  vanished  into  the  fogs  and  wilderness 
of  the  ice  pack,  beyond  whose  trackless  waste  lay 
Krocker  Land.  Of  course  a  sea  dog  like  Captain 
Coogan,    a    clever    and    hardy    mate    like    Isaac 

63 


64  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Stanwix,  a  pertinacious  thinker  like  the  engineer 
Bell  Phillips,  and  such  an  experienced  and  avari- 
cious reader  as  the  carpenter  Jack  Spent  (he  had 
made  ten  trips  to  Point  Barrow)  could  make  pretty 
shrewd  guesses  as  to  our  intentions.  The  stores 
and  supplies,  the  sledges  and  kayaks,  splendid 
vehicles  of  travel  made  under  Goritz's  supervision, 
were  informing  enough,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
disconcerting  secrecy  of  the  actors  in  this  strange 
new  ice-drama.  I  think  we  were  regarded  as  a 
"parcel  of  wild  devils  or  fools,"  though  I  think  too, 
with  the  exception  of  perhaps  the  Professor,  our 
physical  constants  were  impressive. 

Our  departure  did  not  escape  public  notice.  We 
were  besieged  by  reporters,  but  we  were  impene- 
trable, and  yet  we  were  genially  communicative 
too.  It  was  the  Arctic  or  bowhead  whale  we  were 
interested  in;  we  were  naturalists,  the  Professor 
was  hoping  to  introduce  the  bowhead  whale  into 
European  waters;  just  now  a  preliminary  study  of 
its  habits,  habitat,  food,  breeding  grounds,  and 
commercial  availability  was  indispensable.  That 
fiction  sufficed.  The  remarkable  launch  prepared  for 
us  was  made  into  a  skillful  adjunct  to  our  investiga- 
tions. We  were  honored  by  several  columns  of 
interviews  in  the  dailies,  and  the  splash  of  our 
adventure  spread  its  circle  of  disturbance  even  to 
Washington,  whence  official  offers  of  assistance 
and  participation  were  received  which — were  never 
answered.  Among  our  visitors,  for  we  did  not 
escape  the  invasion  of  sightseers,  was  that  Goliah, 
Carlos  Huerta,  from  whose  branding  iron  you 
saved  me." 

(Erickson  spoke  this  measuredly  and  calmly  to 
be  sure,  but  his  hands  covered  his  face,  and  I  saw 
his  body  sway,  convulsed  by  his  emotion.) 

"This  man  somehow  appealed  to  me;  perhaps 
it  was  his  herculean  dimensions.     He  was  familiar 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  65 

with  launches  and  machinery,  and  was  very  intelH- 
gent;  forceful,  too.  His  suavity  disarmed  sus- 
picion, and  his  robust,  seemingly  ingenuous  interest 
pleased  me.  Almost  his  last  words,  before  we 
sailed,  invited  me  to  come  to  see  him — he  handed 
me  his  card — and  to  tell  him  "all  about  it."  It 
was  a  curious,  inexplicable  divination  on  his  part 
that  I  should  have  much  to  tell.  That  man,  Mr. 
Link,  was  the  most  ruthless  scoundrel  I  ever  met; 
he  was  my  first  scoundrel ;  because  I  had  never  met 
a  scoundrel  before  I  fell  into  his  net. 

(Again  a  pause.  It  lasted  so  long  that  I  feared 
some  complication  of  feeling  had  robbed  him  of  his 
memory.  I  said  "And  Mr.  Erickson,  you  left  San 
Francisco?"  His  consciousness  returned,  and  he 
turned  to  me  smiling.) 

Yes,  we  left  San  Francisco  about  the  end  of 
April,  a  dull  day  with  fog  banks  lifting  and  falling 
over  the  Golden  Gate,  while  a  rising  storm  outside 
was  turning  the  ocean  into  water  alps,  smiting  the 
clouds.  Our  course  was  almost  a  direct  line  to 
Behring  Straits;  we  were  to  pass  through  the 
channel  between  Unalaska  and  Uninak  Islands, 
then  coast  the  Pribylof  Islands  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Professor,  reach  Indian  Point,  on  the  Siberian  side 
of  the  strait  where  some  of  the  natives,  Masinkers 
(Tchouktchis) ,  could  be  seen,  then  cross  to  Port 
Clarence  on  the  Alaskan  shore  for  an  inspection  of 
the  Nakooruks  (Innuits) ;  then  two  stops  for  the 
benefit  of  Hopkins  and  Goritz.  We  also  intended 
to  secure  at  the  latter  place  dogs  for  our  dash  over 
the  ice  to  the  Krocker  Land  shore  from  Poin,t 
Barrow.  Captain  Coogan  recommended  a  stop  at 
Cape  Prince  of  Wales  where  further  ethnological 
notes  might  be  gathered,  but  this  was  overruled  as 
both  the  Professor  and  Hopkins  expected  to  visit 
the  coal  beds  beyond  Point  Hope,  and  Cape 
Lisburne  in  the  Arctic  Ocean. 


66  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

We  came  abreast  of  Pribylof  about  May  sixth, 
stalled  ofiF  St.  Paul's  Island  in  a  still  sea,  light  south- 
west winds  and  rising  tide.  The  Professor  was 
pulled  off  to  the  island  in  the  morning;  his  eager- 
ness to  visit  these  famous  fur-seal  rookeries  being 
irrepressible.  He  had  talked  of  little  else,  in  the 
intervals  when  we  were  not  discussing  our  momen- 
tous enterprise,  but  the  marvelous  stories  which 
old  navigators.  Captain  Scammon  and  Captain 
Bryant  had  told,  and  the  fascinating  studies  of 
Elliot.  He  told  us  that  formerly,  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  later,  these  pelagic 
mammals  had  swarmed  in  millions  up  to  these 
islands,  rising  from  the  ocean  like  a  veritable  mam- 
mal inundation.  He  told  us  about  the  bull  seals, 
how  they  fought,  their  tenacity,  their  endurance, 
how  a  bull  will  fight  fifty  or  sixty  battles  for  the 
possession  of  his  ample  harem  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
cows,  and  last  out  to  the  end  of  the  season,  three 
months  perhaps  without  food,  living  on  his  own  fat, 
covered  with  scars,  eyes  gouged  out,  striped  with 
blood ;  and  how  the  jovial  bachelors,  not  so  discon- 
solate as  might  be  imagined,  the  "hoUus-chickies," 
congregate  to  one  side.  He  said  the  noise  from 
these  monstrous  breeding  grounds,  where  thous- 
ands of  seals  are  roaring,  bleating,  calling — 
mothers,  fathers  and  pups — could  be  heard,  with 
the  wind  right,  five  or  six  miles  to  sea.  He  didn't 
expect  to  see  the  households  developed  then — it 
was  too  early — but  he  might  have  an  opportunity 
to  find  a  few  advance  bulls  on  their  stations.  He 
found  the  bulls,  and  he  found  an  adventure,  and 
we  found  him. 

It  was  almost  four  or  five  hours  after  the  Pro- 
fessor had  left  the  ship  in  a  yawl  rowed  by  two 
sailors,  that  Hopkins,  Goritz,  and  myself  followed 
him  in  another  boat.  We  saw  the  yawl  on  a  short 
beach  of  sand,  with  the  men  sunning  themselves 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  67 

and  asleep  on  the  black  rocks  which  hemmed  in  the 
little  cove.  We  ran  our  boat  on  the  sands,  the 
men  came  strolling  toward  us,  rubbing  their  eyes 
and  recovering  from  the  inertia  of  what  had  been 
an  uninterrupted  snooze.  When  we  asked  for  the 
Professor  they  told  us  he  had  disappeared,  and  had 
ordered  them  to  stay  where  they  were  while  he 
pursued  his  investigations.  He  certainly  was  no- 
where in  sight  and  a  little  anxious  over  his  long 
absence  we  moved  up  to  the  broken  rim  of  rocks 
which  probably  separated  this  retreat  from  some 
similar  beach  on  either  side. 

The  elevated  cones  and  ridges  of  the  island  could 
be  seen  towering  up  toward  the  interior  in  gaunt 
gray  surfaces,  on  which  rested  extensive  patches  of 
snow.  We  surmounted  the  inconsiderable  eleva- 
tion and  found  it  was  a  broader  barrier  than  we  had 
anticipated,  a  platform  of  jagged  projecting  crests 
with  intervening  rocky  basins  or  tables,  the  whole 
an  extended  spur  from  a  black  wall  of  rock,  on 
whose  summit  were  the  clustering  huts  of  a  native 
village.  On  the  edges  of  the  rocks  hung  a  few  large 
cakes  of  ice,  and  the  receding  tide  had  left  broken, 
hummocky  masses  tilted  at  various  angles  over  the 
inclined  faces  of  stone.  The  scene  was  chilly  and 
desolate  and  to  add  to  its  lugubrious  desolation  a 
fog  had  slowly  drifted  in  from  the  sea  and  was  now 
tortuously  rolling  down  from  the  highland  on  the 
opposite  shore  to  the  island.  Our  search  for  the 
missing  Professor  would  have  to  be  hastened. 

"The  Professor  must  be  found,"  said  Hopkins. 
"We  shan't  know  how  to  deal  with  the  native 
Krockerans  when  we  meet  'em,  without  the  Pro- 
fessor. At  present  he  is  the  only  man  alive  who 
understands  their  peculiarities,  and  as  an  interpre- 
ter he's  bound  to  prove  useful." 

"Of  course,"  said  Goritz,  "you  don't  think  the 
seals  can  eat  him?" 


68  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"They  might,"  answered  Hopkins,  "but  they 
could  never  digest  him.  It  would  certainly  be  a 
death  potion  to  the  venturesome  bull  who  mistook 
him  for  food.  Likely  as  not  he  is  now  engaged  in 
explaining  to  an  interesting  family  his  plans  for  the 
preservation  and  increase  of  them  and  their 
kindred." 

During  this  irrelevant  badinage  I  had  crossed  the 
rocky  flat  and  reached  another  cove  or  gully, 
headed  towards  the  land  by  a  slope  of  broken 
boulders,  and  floored  with  sand.  We  had  as  yet 
encountered  no  seals.  Looking  beyond  this  bay  I 
saw  on  a  promontory  bounding  the  distant  edge  of 
the  beach  what  seemed  like  a  human  figure,  or 
indeed  like  a  group  of  figures.  Watching  the  objects 
for  a  short  time  I  could  more  clearly  distinguish 
them,  and  to  my  astonishment  determined  that  one 
was  a  man  and  the  rest  some  erect  animal  forms, 
doubtless  seals.  The  group  was  at  an  extreme 
point  on  the  rocks,  and,  if  the  solitary  human  was 
the  Professor,  his  only  possible  retreat  from  the 
beleaguering  seals  would  be  the  water. 

I  hallooed  to  my  companions,  pointing  to  the  dis- 
tant objects,  and  hastened  forward  onto  the  rock- 
strewn  beach.  Goritz  and  Hopkins  struggled  over 
the  rough  patch  of  rocks  and  overtook  me. 

"Yes,  by  the  lives  of  all  the  saints!"  cried 
Hopkins,  who  had  stopped  a  moment  and  with 
shaded  eyes  was  studying  the  enigmatical  figures 
silhouetted  against  sea  and  sky.  "It's  the  Professor 
and  three  heachmasters  apparently  bent  on  his 
capture,  or  else  drinking  in  wisdom  from  his  lips. 
It  might  just  be  they're  competing  for  his  services 
in  teaching  their  prospective  families." 

"I  can  see  him  waving  his  hands,  it  seems  to  me, 
and  now  he's  shooing  them  with  his  hat,"  exclaimed 
Goritz.     "He's  in  something  of  a  fix.     Hurry." 

We  bounded  forward,  and  over  the  beaten  sand 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  69 

raced  together,  taking  quick  glances  ahead  at  the 
now  certain  embarrassment  of  our  friend.  It  was 
indeed  the  Professor,  and  his  predicament  was  un- 
mistakable. Amusement  however  mingled  with 
our  anxiety,  for  as  we  drew  near  we  could  plainly 
make  out  that  he  had  taken  his  hat  between  his 
teeth  and  was  violently  wagging  his  head,  the 
absurd  appendage  of  his  cap  flying  up  and  down 
producing  a  very  ludicrous  efifect.  It  was  a  ser- 
viceable device,  however,  for  the  amazed  seals  had 
stopped  their  approaches ;  their  barking  or  snarling, 
at  first  quite  audible,  had  ceased,  and  they  were 
now  attentively  regarding  the  Professor  with 
almost  immobile  heads. 

"Guess,"  called  out  Hopkins  between  breaths, 
"they  think  the  Professor  is  a  little  dippy,  and  are 
reconsidering  his  engagement  as  a  domestic 
instructor." 

We  were  now  near  enough  to  attract  the  Profes- 
sor's sight;  he  hailed  us  with  swinging  arms  but  did 
not  venture  to  desist  from  his  mandarin-like  wig- 
wagging. The  approach  to  his  position  was  a  little 
dif^cult,  and  we  suffered  some  falls.  Our  advent 
had  attracted  the  notice  of  the  bulls  and  they 
swerved  about  to  receive  us,  humping  their  backs, 
leaping  forward  on  their  flippers,  and  renewing 
their  truculent  miauling  or  barking.  We  attacked 
them  with  stones  but  their  defiance  was  unchanged, 
and  they  lunged  and  rushed,  quite  unappalled  by 
our  onset.  They  would  retreat  almost  immediately 
to  their  former  positions,  holding  the  poor  Professor 
in  chancery  with  an  apparent  unanimity  that  kept 
Goritz  laughing,  for  with  every  retreat,  the  Pro- 
fessor would  renew  his  violent  gesticulations. 

At  length  Goritz  and  Hopkins  armed  with  an 
armful  of  stones  drove  in  on  the  biggest  of  the  bulls, 
and  assailed  him  with  such  a  shower  of  missiles  that 
his  reserve  was  overcome,  and  he  plunged  forward, 


70  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

following  them  for  twenty  feet  or  more.  I  ran  to 
the  Professor  and  caught  his  arm,  and  we  got  out  of 
the  zone  of  danger,  while  the  momentarily  allied 
beachmasters,  frustrated  from  their  imprisonment  of 
him,  suddenly  resented  each  other's  proximity  and 
after  a  miscellaneous  "mix-up,"  as  Hopkins  called 
it,  shuffled  and  loped  away  to  their  former  stations, 
the  chosen  spots  for  their  future  seraglios. 

With  the  liberated  Professor  we  sat  down  on  some 
stool-like  fragments  inserted  in  the  sand  of  the 
beach  and  heard  his  story.  It  was  laughable 
enough  and  added  an  unusual  trait  to  the  recorded 
conduct  of  the  big  bull  seals,  usually  indifferent  to 
the  approach  of  men.  These  three  indolent,  unoc- 
cupied forerunners  of  the  great  herds  that  might 
soon  be  expected,  had  actually  chased  the  Professor 
and,  having  cornered  him  on  the  promontory,  had 
hopelessly  besieged  him.  The  Professor  had  been 
too  much  interested  or  too  imprudent.  His  amia- 
bility perhaps  had  brought  him  into  this  unex- 
pected dilemma,  for  he  had  gathered  up  seaweed 
from  the  rocks  at  the  edge  of  the  water,  and 
attempted  to  feed  the  bulls.  They  followed  him, 
and  their  disappointed  expectations  developed 
later  into  the  pugnacity  that  had  made  him  a 
prisoner. 

While  he  was  talking  a  few  more  seals  emerged 
from  the  ocean,  lazily  hauling  themselves  on  the 
rocks  with  that  ill-assured  clumsiness  of  motion  so 
strikingly  replaced  in  the  water  by  the  greatest 
grace,  agility  and  speed. 

"But  Professor,"  interrupted  Goritz,  "what  were 
you  doing  with  your  hat?" 

The  Professor,  who  had  been  much  ruffled  and 
excited  over  his  encounter,  welcomed  this  inquiry 
with  a  restored  equanimity. 

"Ah!  Goritz,  that  is  a  contribution  to  science. 
On  our  return  I  shall  call  the  attention  of  Lloyd 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  71 

Morgan  and  other  animal  psychologists  to  this 
novel  observation.  Antoine,  it  has  long  been 
known  that  the  rhythmical  oscillation  of  a  flexible 
substance,  a  rag,  hat,  towel,  banner,  exercises  a 
peculiar  influence  on  animals.  It  will  allay  the 
ferocity  of  a  mad  dog  or  alarm  him.  Color  has 
something  to  do  with  it,  as  instance  the  red  rag 
which  irritates  the  bull.  Now — "  here  the  Pro- 
fessor looked  critically  at  his  steamer  cap,  and  may 
have  mentally  noted  that  it  was  a  green  and  brown 
Scotch  plaid.  "Now  this  influence  seems  curiously 
reinforced  if  the  substance  or  garment  is  taken  in 
the  mouth  and  shaken." 

The  incorrigible  Hopkins  had  again  buried  his 
face  in  his  cupped  palms. 

"No  reason  that  is  incontrovertible  has  been 
assigned  for  this,  but  I  assume  that  it  is  an  appeal  to 
a  latent  demonism  in  animals,  which  in  its  later 
evolution  appears  as  devil-worship  in  aboriginal 
people.  I  most  fortunately  recalled  this,  and  at  a 
critical  moment,  when  I  was  threatened  with  the 
necessity  of  retreating  into  the  sea — "  The  poorly 
repressed  vibrations  in  Hopkins'  body  might  have 
been  referred  to  sympathy  or — something  else.  "A 
quite  unnecessary  ablution,  let  us  say,"  and  the 
Professor  smiled  benignantly  at  me,  as  perhaps  the 
one  most  gravely  interested  in  his  narrative.  "I 
thought  of  this  remarkable  device,  which  I  believe 
has  something  of  the  nature  of  an  incantation. 
The  effect  was  miraculous.  This  simple  gesture 
held  the  seals  at  bay;  I  think  it  is  quite  demon- 
strable also  that  there  is  a  physiological  basis  for 
their  evident  stupifaction — the  optic  nerve.  These 
animals  you  know  have  very  poor  sight — the  optic 
nerve  is  disturbed  and  a  cerebral  vertigo  is  induced 
which,  like — " 

"That  settles  it,"  cried  Hopkins,  stumbling  to  his 
feet  with  a  very  red  face  and  hurrying  across  the 


72  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

sands.  "Professor,  there's  something  worse  than 
seals  on  this  island;  there  are  the  U.  S.  officials, 
and — I  guess  they  are  charmproof." 

"Exactly,"  assented  the  Professor  in  an  absent- 
minded  way,  "exactly,  but  had  you  gentlemen 
restrained  yourselves  a  little,  I  believe  I  could  have 
advanced  an  interesting  corroboration  to  a  hitherto 
dimly — " 

A  gun  shot  was  heard.  It  evidently  came  from 
our  men  in  the  adjoining  cove  and  we  smothered 
the  Professor's  scientific  homily  with  a  shout,  and 
accelerated  our  departure. 

When  we  reached  the  boat  we  found  some  natives 
and  two  resident  officials  surrounding  our  men,  the 
former  somewhat  excited  and  demonstrative.  The 
officials  questioned  us  and  were  informed  of  our 
purely  accidental  visit,  and  with  that  explanation, 
as  the  fog  had  increased  and  there  were  threatening 
symptoms  of  a  blow,  we  manned  our  boats  and  got 
away. 

Captain  Coogan  resumed  our  course,  making 
northwest  for  Indian  Point,  amid  heavy  ice, 
whose  leads  were  carefully  followed  until  they 
liberated  us  in  open  water,  and  the  immediate  dan- 
ger of  being  nipped  was  past.  The  next  morning  I 
was  awakened — my  room  adjoined  Hopkins' — by 
hearing  the  American  reciting  in  a  voice  loud 
enough  to  justify  forcible  remonstrance: 

"7  met  my  mates  in  the  morning  {and  Oh, 

but  I  am  old) , 
Where  roaring  on  the  ledges  the  summer 

groundswell  rolled, 
I  heard  them  lift  the  chorus  that  dropped  the 

breakers'  song, 
The    beaches    of   Lucannon — two    million 

voices  strong, 
The  song  of  pleasant  stations  beside  the  salt 

lagoons, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  73 

The     song     of    blowing     squadrons     that 

shuffled  down  the  dunes 
The  song  of  midnight  dances  that  charmed 

the  sea  to  flame 
The  beaches  of  Lucannon — before  the  sealers 

came!'' 

We  made  Indian  Point,  or  Chaplin,  as  the  settle- 
ment is  called,  in  five  days,  held  back  by  floes  and 
fogs,  narrowly  escaping  a  collision  with  an  adven- 
turesome and  premature  whaler  making  its  way  to 
the  same  destination.  These  sailors  often  get 
caught  in  the  ice,  when  they  are  helpless,  and  if  the 
pack  tightens  on  them,  they  are  likely  to  come  to 
grief  with  a  cut  stem  or  a  stoved  side.  We  assisted 
one  poor  fellow  out  of  such  a  plight.  His  vessel  was 
shipping  water  fast,  and  we  helped  shift  his  load, 
giving  the  boat  a  stern  list  that  lifted  its  broken 
nose  and  allowed  him  to  make  repairs. 

Chaplin  is  a  small  settlement  of  natives  on  the 
Siberian  coast,  the  largest  along  the  line  to  Behring 
Straits.  There  may  be  some  forty  huts  there,  and 
the  whale  men  find  it  a  convenient  place  to  do  a 
stroke  of  trade.  Indeed,  if  it  were  not  for  their 
visits  the  unfortunate  Masinkers  might  resign  the 
job  of  trying  to  live  at  all,  as  the  whales  are  more 
scarce  than  formerly,  or  more  cautious,  and  walrus 
and  seal  scarcely  turn  in  closer  than  St.  Lawrence 
Island.  The  village  is  on  a  projecting  tooth  of 
land — a  mere  sandpit — and  back  from  the  village 
along  the  foothills  is  the  curious,  disconsolate  look- 
ing graveyard  where  the  dead  are  buried  in  rudely 
excavated  holes  and  covered  with  stones  and  earth, 
some  with  deer  antlers  stuck  about  as  gravestones. 

The  natives  were  not  slow  in  coming  aboard,  and 
as  we  had  outrun  the  whalers  who  are  annually 
expected,  their  reception  of  us  was,  so  to  speak, 
enthusiastically  hearty.  I  thought  it  was  a  trifle 
overdone.     The    entire    population    tried    to    get 


74  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

aboard,  and  assumed  possession  of  everything  with 
such  unsophisticated  satisfaction  that  it  strained 
the  Hmits  of  our  hospitality  and  tired  our  patience 
somewhat.  They  were  a  jocular,  spontaneous  and 
chattering  crowd,  of  all  ages,  many  hues,  and  some 
diversity  of  dress.  Each  canoe  had  received  from 
Captain  Coogan  a  bucket  of  bread,  but  their  appe- 
tite for  tobacco  would  have  made  a  tremendous 
contribution  to  the  income  of  the  United  Cigar 
Company.  Everyone  wanted  it — men,  women 
and  children,  and  it  stood  first  in  the  commercial 
schedule  of  trade.  We  rejected  their  whalebone 
ivory  and  foxskins,  but  boots,  skin  shirts  and  coats 
were  acceptable. 

Our  very  generous  demeanor  towards  their  needs 
elicited  the  stormiest  approval,  but  we  regretfully 
learned  that  it  prolonged  their  occupation  of  the 
ship  which,  so  far  as  fragrance  was  considered,  had 
seriously  declined  from  its  former  estate  of  habita- 
bility.  Articles  of  all  sorts  come  handy  to  these 
people,  but  as  we  were  not  prepared  for  their 
omnivorous  demands,  tobacco  formed  the  staple  of 
our  barter. 

Now  in  our  little  library,  whose  usefulness  the 
sustained  succession  of  long  days  of  suspense  or 
idleness  had  fully  demonstrated,  we  had  read  in  a 
small  light  blue  book  by  Herbert  L.  Aldrich,  called 
"Arctic  Alaska  and  Siberia,"  of  the  author's  visit  to 
this  very  place.  In  the  book  a  man,  Gohara  by 
name,  was  designated  as  ''the  Masinker  of  the 
Masinkers,''  a  man  forty  years  of  age,  tall,  com- 
manding, and  "by  far  the  best  specimen  mentally 
and  physically  of  his  people." 

We  discovered  him.  He  was  yet  vigorous, 
though  approaching  seventy  and  his  remarkable 
spouse — his  third  wife  then — Siwurka,  maintained 
a  supreme  position  in  his  household,  which  the 
advent,  since  Aldrich's  visit,  of  two  younger  women 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  75 

had  not  disturbed.  One  of  these  later  accessions 
to  Gohara's  domestic  felicity  was  a  person  of  be- 
coming rotundity,  with  a  distracting  tousle  of  hair 
that  almost  covered  her  eyes.  The  inexpugnable 
scientific  curiosity  of  the  Professor  led  him  into  his 
second  predicament  with  this  young  person,  which, 
for  a  moment,  promised  to  be  more  serious  than  his 
inquisitional  visit  to  the  fur  seals. 

It  was  the  last  day  of  our  stay  at  Indian  Point 
which  had  been  prolonged  by  the  viewless  stretches 
of  ice  moving  out  of  the  Arctic  into  Behring  Sea, 
and  we  were  all  ashore.  As  usual  the  Professor 
deserted  us,  following  out  some  preconcerted 
scheme  of  observation  or  experiment  in  which  our 
participation  was  unnecessary  or  even  resented. 
It  was  some  hours  after  we  had  missed  him,  and  our 
inspection  of  the  tupicks,  the  dogs,  the  children, 
and  the  industrial  products  of  the  Masinkers  was 
completed,  that  a  large  boy,  prodigiously  magnified 
by  his  big  boots,  rushed  upon  our  trailing  group 
crying: 

"Doghter!    Doghter!    He  out  of  head.    Hoopla!" 

The  fellow  was  excited  and  out  of  breath  with 
running,  and  his  excitement  became  reflected  in  the 
faces  of  the  natives  around  us,  who  were  helplessly 
bewildered  and  looked  so. 

"It's  the  Professor — another  row.  Hold  back 
the  crowd.  I'll  go  with  this  screaming  lunatic  and 
extricate  our  distinguished  friend.  Some  scientific 
escapade,  you  can  bet  your  hat  on  it,"  whispered 
Hopkins. 

To  inquiries  of  his  acquaintances  the  boy  kept  up 
an  unintelligible  jabber  and  pointed  to  the  farther 
side  of  the  village.  Apparently  the  assemblage 
were  on  the  point  of  bolting  for  the  spot,  in  defer- 
ence to  the  boy's  ejaculations.  Hopkins  handed  us 
a  package  which  he  had  been  reserving  for  some  sort 
of  a  valedictory  to  Chaplin  and  its  unsavory  popu- 


76  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

lation.  It  was  a  liberal  assortment  of  quids, 
smoking  tobacco,  cigars  and  snuff,  and  its  exhibi- 
tion and  immediate  distribution  quelled  the  flight 
of  the  rabble  around  us,  whose  inclination  to  stay 
where  they  were  instantly  hardened  like  adamant. 

Hopkins  seized  the  boy,  turned  him  around,  and 
the  two  vanished  in  the  direction  the  boy  had  indi- 
cated. In  about  half  an  hour,  or  less,  they  returned 
with  the  Professor  between  them,  much  upset  but 
calm,  and  apparently  indifferent  to  the  objurgations 
and  imprecations,  delivered  in  unvarnished  and 
vigorous  Tchoukchi,  hurled  at  him  by  no  less  a  man 
than  Gohara,  followed  by  his  five  wives,  whose 
voices  querulously  mingled  and  reinforced  their 
master's  denunciations.  The  situation  was  un- 
questionably very  amusing,  very  curious,  and, 
except  for  the  fortunate  intervention  of  Hopkins' 
miscellaneous  propitiations,  might  have  become 
very  annoying.  We  hurried  the  Professor  to  the 
beach,  got  into  our  boats,  Hopkins  making  a  stern- 
wise  address  to  the  multitude  on  the  shore,  a  most 
grotesque  and  tumultuous  bunch  of  long,  short, 
thin,  fat,  smiling,  frowning,  dark  and  light  figures  in 
skins  and  fur,  and  reached  the  "Astrum,"  which 
that  very  evening  left  the  offing,  and,  over  a  clear, 
moon-lit  sea  was  directed  toward  Port  Clarence  in 
Alaska.  A  hard  blow  was  on,  and  the  ice  packs 
had  been  scattered  or  driven  eastward. 

Hopkins'  story  that  night,  after  the  Professor  had 
retired,  which  he  did  unusually  early  and  with  a 
complete  resumption  of  his  smile  and  his  good 
humor,  entertained  us  until  after  midnight.  I 
abbreviate  its  windings  and  prolixity,  interspersed 
with  Hopkins'  incommunicable  reflexions. 

The  boy,  conveniently  named  Oolah,  led  Hopkins 
some  way  back  of  the  settlement  to  a  tupick  of 
considerable  size,  and  covered  with  canvas  (usually 
walrus  hide  or  skins  form  these  roofings)  which  was, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  77 

it  so  happened,  Gohara's  storehouse,  stocked  with 
trading  material.  Hopkins  restrained  his  guide's 
impatience,  and  finding  a  convenient  aperture  for 
the  inspection  of  the  interior  peered  within.  To 
his  delighted  astonishment  there  was  the  Professor, 
with  notebook  and  pencil,  and  near  him  in  placid 
wonderment,  which  occasionally  broke  in  smiles  or 
deepened  into  terror,  was  the  last  and,  with  reser- 
vations for  taste,  most  attractive  wife  of  the  head 
trader  of  Indian  Point,  Ting-wah  by  name.  The 
Professor's  performances  were  immoderately  ex- 
travagant. Seen  in  their  incongruous  environ- 
ment, combined  with  their  novelty,  they  compelled 
Hopkins  to  retire  at  intervals  and  roll  on  the 
ground,  in  order  to  control  the  violence  of  his  merri- 
ment, another  proceeding  which  strengthened 
Oolah's  conviction  in  the  immanence  of  the  devil 
among  these  strangers. 

When  Hopkins  first  descried  the  Professor,  he 
was  standing  erect  with  his  arms  raised  high  above 
his  head,  close  together,  the  hands  in  contact, 
flapping  and  clapping  them  in  an  indescribably 
funny  way,  while  at  intervals  he  shrank  and 
cowered  over  as  if  seized  with  the  insupportable 
pains  of  colic.  To  these  antics  the  woman  re- 
turned a  perplexed  stare,  as  the  Professor  re- 
sumed his  normal  manner,  took  up  his  pad 
and  pendl,  and  waited  apparently  for  her  re- 
sponse, while  she,  equally  expectant,  stood 
stock  still  and  waited  for  more  explicit  communi- 
cations. 

Then  the  Professor  suddenly  extended  his  arms 
in  front  of  him,  and  wheeled  round  on  his  heels, 
with  such  commendable  agility,  that  as  he  spun, 
his  expansive  ears  seemed  almost  obliterated.  It 
was  then  that  Hopkins  resorted  to  the  refuge  of  the 
ground  to  conceal  his  feelings.  Still  the  woman 
was  mute,  but  her  face  showed  a  rising  fear,  and 


78  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

her  hands  rose  to  her  neck  as  if  to  seize  something 
from  the  skin  pouch  made  in  her  upper  garment. 

The  Professor  left  off  his  physical  maneuvers 
and  began  a  series  of  grimaces  which,  as  Hopkins 
expressed  it,  "would  have  dimmed  the  luster  of  the 
best  vaudeville  star  he  had  ever  seen."  They 
expressed  almost  everything,  beginning  with  some- 
thing that  might  be  called  suffering,  to  a  terrible 
excruciation  of  joy,  when  the  Professor  exerted  his 
features  to  a  degree  that  Hopkins  called  "the  limit 
of  facial  agony."  And  yet  the  girl  was  silent,  but 
her  eyes  never  left  the  Professor,  and  Hopkins,  and 
Oolah  too,  saw  her  quietly  draw  a  knife  from  her 
"bread  basket."  Hopkins  might  not  have  ob- 
served this  if  Oolah  had  not  grunted,  ''Stick  'im." 

He  felt  then  it  was  time  to  intervene,  but  his 
interest  and  curiosity — "better'n  a  show"  he  re- 
peated over  and  over  again — had  up  to  this  point 
prevented  him. 

Suddenly  the  Professor  desisted  from  his  rapid 
play  of  expression,  and  began  to  moan  diabolically, 
rolling  towards  the  woman  with  supplicating  arms. 
The  knife  flashed,  it  was  upraised,  and  the  girl 
crouched,  her  face  darkening  with  either  rage  or 
terror.  The  next  moment  she  had  sprung  at  the 
now  observant  and  terror-stricken  Professor,  who 
executed  a  flank  movement — "side-stepped"  Hop- 
kins put  it — and  was  out  of  the  door  and — into  the 
protecting  embrace  of  Hopkins'  arms,  while  Oolah 
with  precocious  intelligence  intercepted  Ting-wah. 
The  girl's  pent-up  emotions  spent  themselves  in 
screams  and  fervent  but  barbarous  complaints  that 
brought  Gohara  and  his  other  spouses  to  her  rescue. 
Hopkins,  utterly  mystified  by  the  Professor's  ex- 
hibition, resorted  to  the  very  plausible  explanation, 
suggested  by  Oolah  in  the  first  place,  that  the  Pro- 
fessor had  gone  crazy,  which  indeed  he  most  apos- 
tolically    believed    himself.     This    answered    the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  79 

purpose,  though  it  did  not  repress  Gohara  and  his 
family  from  uttering  a  string  of  uncomplimentary 
epithets  which  might  have  provoked  a  serious  dis- 
turbance had  it  not  been  for  Hopkins'  tact  and  the 
celerity  of  our  retreat.  Gohara's  rage  followed  our 
boat  with  stridulous  recriminations. 

The  Professor  was  noticeably  crestfallen  and 
almost  sullenly  indifferent  to  our  questions  as  to 
what  had  happened.  It  was  only  a  few  days  later, 
when  his  spirits  had  become  thoroughly  restored, 
that  he  spoke  about  it,  with  a  sudden  assumption  of 
confidence  that  delighted  us. 

"My  friends,"  the  Professor  began  one  cold, 
radiant  afternoon  as  we  were  ranged  round  the 
naphtha  launch  admiring  its  adaptation,  strength, 
the  happy  conception  of  structural  ice  runners  let 
into  her  keel,  the  easily  unshipped  tiller  and  screw; 
"My  friends,  the  theories  of  the  origin  of  language 
have  been  various;  there  are  the  views  of  Geiger 
as  to  its  inception  in  movement  and  action,  those 
of  Noire  as  to  the  importance  of  sound,  onomato- 
poetic  or  imitative,  and  the  value  of  expression,  as 
with  Darwin." 

"You  see,"  he  continued  with  a  fine  indirection  of 
reference,  which  we  appreciated,  "I  was  before  an 
untutored  child  of  nature.  I  attempted,  along 
these  various  lines  of  non-verbal  intercourse  to 
secure  an  illuminative  response  that  might  throw 
some  light  upon  theory.  Under  the  circumstances, 
the  subject,  vitiated  I  think  by  contact  with 
European  culture — Ah — " 

''Shied,''  suggested  Hopkins. 

"Well,"  the  Professor  smilingly  concluded, 
"there  was  certainly  an  hiatus.  Her  aboriginal 
powers  of  interpretation  were  dulled — dulled — 
perhaps  extinguished." 

"But  Professor,  you  woke  up  a  good  deal  of  ora- 
tory.    In    fact.    Professor,    you're    nervy   and — if 


80  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

I  may  be  permitted  the  vulgarity  of  quotation — 

'You  would  joke  with  hyenas,  returning 

their  stare 
With  an  impudent  wag  of  your  head, 
And  you  went  to  walk,  paw-in-paw,  with 

a  bear, 
"Just  to  keep  up  its  spirits,"  you  said. 
Without     rest     or     pause — while     those 

frumious  jaws 
Went  savagely  snapping  around — 
You  skipped  and  you  hopped  and  you 

floundered  and  flopped 
Till  fainting  you  fell  to  the  ground.' " 

The  Professor  passed  his  hand  approvingly  over 
the  side  of  the  launch,  ignoring  the  jibe.  We 
dropped  the  subject,  indeed  forgot  it,  listening  to 
Goritz's  animated  and  assuring  praise  of  the  little 
craft  that  would  introduce  us  to  a  new  continent, 
and  the  incident  was  never  again  heard  of. 

Our  next  haven  was  Port  Clarence  in  Alaska,  and 
we  had  a  lot  of  trouble  making  it.  The  ice  stream- 
ing out  of  Behring  Straits  was  thick,  and,  as  the 
Yankee  put  it,  ''numerous ^  The  captain  and 
mates  were  keen  to  watch  their  chances,  and  we 
often  found  ourselves  surrounded  by  blocks  that 
the  wind  threatened  to  pack  together  to  our  immi- 
nent peril.  It  was  very  early,  and  whereas  the 
whalers  make  Port  Clarence  about  midsummer  we 
expected  or  hoped  to  get  to  Point  Barrow  about 
that  time.  A  northwest  wind  came  up  and  scat- 
tered the  ice  and  gave  us  an  open  sea,  though  we 
were  compelled  to  make  some  long  detours  around 
white  meadows  of  snow-covered  ice,  that  slipped 
ofi^  into  the  recesses  of  low,  cold  fogs  and  suggested 
illimitable  barriers  ahead  of  us. 

The  distant  rattling  or  caking  sound  of  grinding 
ice  was  sometimes  constantly  heard  for  hours,  and 
again  vast  fields,  looking  almost  motionless,  loomed 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  81 

up  with  the  sun  shimmering  their  surfaces  into  an 
endless  complexity  of  mirrors.  Along  the  indented 
or  hummocky  edges  of  these  little  continents  we 
would  steam  serenely  and  exult  courageously  in  the 
thought  of  crossing  just  such  white  ways  to  the 
hidden  wonders  of  a  hidden  world.  We  often  fell 
into  fits  of  dreaming,  buoyed  up  by  the  calm  and 
glowing  vaticinations  of  the  Professor. 

We  finally  brought  up  at  the  port  and  received  a 
tumultuous  reception,  having  outrun  the  whaling 
fleet.  The  natives,  Nakooruks,  crowded  aboard, 
and  were  intently  watched  but  quite  passively 
shunned  by  the  Professor.  Water  and  wood  were 
taken  on  here,  and  about  one  hundred  selected 
dogs,  whose  points  were  minutely  inspected  or  de- 
termined by  Goritz  and  myself.  It  was  June,  and 
already  flowers  spun  their  colored  webs  over  the 
inhospitable  shores,  compensating  for  their  brief 
life  here  in  the  north  by  a  marvelous  abundance. 
Yellow,  white  and  blue,  the  bewitching  patches 
of  moss-blue  flowering  hepatica,  forget-me-not, 
anemone,  phlox  and  daisy  charmed  us,  and  for  a 
moment  brought  back  such  a  flood  of  memories 
that  a  surge  of  homesickness  swept  over  us,  the 
last  tug  of  the  pleasant  world  we  had  turned  our 
backs  on  before  the  portals  of  a  stranger  world 
opened  and  closed  on  us,  perhaps  forever. 

We  bought  fish  and  furs  from  the  natives  who 
had  traveled  hither  with  their  pelts  and  offerings 
from  Norton  Sound,  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  and 
King's  Island.  There  was  confusion  and  bustle  on 
shore,  and  on  board  the  barking  of  dogs,  guttural 
controversies  among  the  Eskimos,  wailing  of  babies, 
orders,  the  shriek  of  the  donkey  engine  hauling  on 
cargo,  produced  a  pleasant  excitement  which 
attained  its  climax  on  the  arrival  of  the  United 
States  revenue  cutter.  Visiting  of  the  captains, 
exchange  of  news  followed,  and  we  were  told  that 


82  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

the  season  was  unprecedented ;  the  ice  in  the 
Arctic  had  broken  up  early,  there  was  a  clear  pas- 
sage in  the  straits  and  an  audacious  whaler  had 
attempted  the  passage  and  "skinned"  through  to 
Point  Hope.  We  were  sanguine  of  reaching  Point 
Barrow  early  in  July. 

On  the  fourth  of  July  we  were  under  Cape  Lis- 
burne,  encountering  the  rush  of  the  wind  that  seems 
harbored  by  that  lofty  cliff,  and  which  like  a  physi- 
cal avalanche  pushed  us  over  until  the  water  rippled 
over  the  lee  rail.  Along  the  shores  everywhere 
there  was  a  broad  avenue  of  open  water,  stretching 
from  the  skirt  of  shore  ice  to  the  heavy  packs, 
sheeted  with  fogs  and  murmurously  moaning, 
inimitably  flooring  that  mysterious  ocean  whose 
furthest  waters  beat  on  the  shores  of  Krocker  Land. 

From  Cape  Lisburne  the  shore  line  strikes  at  a 
right  angle  to  the  Corwin  coal  fields,  the  low  shores, 
except  for  a  few  occasional  interruptions,  as  with 
Cape  Lisburne  itself,  marking  the  margins  of  the 
higher  uplands  in  the  interior.  Salt  lagoons, 
crescent  shaped  beaches,  sandpits,  shoal  basins, 
furnish  a  monotonous  succession  of  flattened,  un- 
interesting features,  which  practically  reaches  to 
Point  Barrow.  At  the  Corwin  coal  beds  slate, 
sandstone  and  conglomerate  overlie  each  other, 
and  the  Mesozoic  age  of  the  beds  themselves  is 
established.  Here  the  Professor  emerged  from  the 
mental  coma  which  had  suspended  his  pedagogic 
enthusiasms  since  we  left  Indian  Point,  and  a  few 
fern  leaf  fossils  unlocked  again  the  storehouse  of  his 
learning  and  loosened  his  tongue  with  eloquent 
predictions. 

Standing  up  at  our  mess  table  with  a  beautifully 
preserved  fern  leaf,  sketched  in  black  interlacings, 
reticulations  and  frondy  leaflets  on  an  ashen-colored 
slate,  the  Professor  spoke  to  us,  and  indeed  we  our- 
selves felt  the  thrill  of  a  reconstructed  world  in  this 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  83 

bleak  land,  as  we  saw  this  silent  token  of  former 
warmth. 

"My  friends,"  he  held  up  the  fossil  leaf,  "here  is 
a  vestige  of  the  past,  a  leaf  of  a  fern.  It  tells  us  of 
hot,  moist,  heat-oppressed  cycles  of  years,  when 
marshes  densely  thicketed  with  tree  fern,  swollen 
with  hot  rains,  drenched  in  a  perspiration  of  mists, 
covered  these  now  arid  snow-blanketed  flats;  when 
a  reptilian  life,  the  consonant  faunal  response  to 
these  climatic  conditions  flourished  here  also,  when, 
dropping  into  the  bayous  and  ponds,  leaf  upon  leaf, 
branches,  spores  and  trunks  of  an  expanded  filicine 
flora  built  up  the  masses  of  vegetable  debris  in 
later  ages,  to  become  consolidated  and  trans- 
formed into  coal  and — "  the  Professor's  eyes 
started,  his  inherent  smile  became  a  portentous 
stare,  and  the  wide  ears  seemed  almost  to  converge 
to  catch  his  own  words  of  promise;  "and — we  shall 
rediscover  a  warm  or  temperate  climate  here  at  the 
North  Pole.     WHYr\ 

His  voice  spoke  this  interrogation  in  something 
like  a  squeal,  so  that  the  answer,  in  its  unaffected 
profundity,    produced    a    really   dramatic    climax. 

''Because  we  shall  be  nearer  the  center  of  the  earth.'" 

We  took  on  coal  at  the  Corwin  mines  and 
resumed  our  progress  northward  in  the  still  un- 
impeded lane  of  open  water,  with  porridge  ice 
forming  fast  along  the  outer  pack  but  the  shore  rim 
intact,  and  bucking  against  a  strong  northeast  cur- 
rent setting  along  shore.  W^e  passed  Point  Lay  and 
Icy  Cape  the  second  day,  and  reached  Point  Barrow 
on  the  tenth  of  July. 

How  well  I  recall  our  landing  on  the  low  beach  of 
this  tip-top  point  of  the  continent,  and  wondering, 
in  a  dreary  dream  of  coming  hardships  and  dangers, 
at  its  desolation,  a  low  barren  sandbank  forty  to 
one  hundred  yards  across.  At  Cape  Smythe 
a  small   promontory  raises  a  faint   remonstrance 


84  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

against  the  encroachments  of  the  sea  in  a  bluff  of 
about  thirty  feet  elevation,  and  here  we  found  the 
village  of  Uglaamie,  a  cluster  of  twenty  or  more 
huts,  inhabited  by  a  boreal  tribe,  the  Nuwukmeun. 
Life  however,  in  the  plants  and  animals  revived 
our  feelings,  and  the  Professor's  exultation  over  the 
traces  of  old  beach  lines  inspirited  us.  Here  on  the 
land,  in  propitious  spots,  sprang  up  buttercups, 
dandelions  and  a  peculiar  poppy;  over  our  heads 
flew  flocks  of  eider  ducks,  a  butterfly  danced  gayly 
in  its  wavering  flight  by  our  side,  and  Captain 
Coogan  reported  a  school  of  whale  running  to  the 
northeast,   "in  a  hurry." 

We  found  some  standing  portions  of  the  United 
States  meteorological  station  placed  here  in  1902, 
and  Goritz  stumbled  upon  a  dismantled  graveyard 
where  saint  and  sinner,  rich  and  poor  had  promis- 
cuously suff'ered  from  the  inroads  of  the  Eskimo 
dog.  It  offered  a  mournful  commentary  upon  the 
transitoriness  of  human  greatness. 

But  reflections  were  out  of  place ;  we  had  reached 
the  point  of  departure,  and  the  Great  Unknown 
sternly  invited  us  to  begin  our  quest.  Under  such 
circumstances  the  long  subdued  instincts  of  the 
primal  man  reassert  themselves,  and  an  augury  of 
good  fortune  befell  us  that  was  droll  enough,  unre- 
lieved by  the  nervous  solemnity  of  our  feelings,  but 
which  so  connected  itself  with  these  as  to  give  it  an 
absurd  stateliness  of  meaning. 

An  angora  goat  was  the  queer  and  unexpected 
waif  we  found  here,  left  by  an  unlucky  whaler  the 
previous  year;  a  long  haired,  pugnacious  billy  goat, 
whose  property  or  power  as  a  mascot  had  failed  to 
save  the  "Siren"  from  being  "nipped,  pooped  and 
swamped,"  and  lost  in  the  remorseless  ice.  The 
resident  Eskimos  in  Uglaamie  had  imbibed  respect 
for  the  goat  (which  had  been  somewhat  summarily 
abandoned  by  its  former  devotees)  and  its  influence 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  85 

with  the  unseen  agencies  that  control  destiny. 
But  they  were  logical  enough  to  conclude  that  its 
intimacy  was  with  bad — tuna — rather  than  with 
good  spirits.  This  omnivorous  beast  furnished  us 
with  a  favora^ble  omen,  all  the  more  auspicious 
because  he  embodied  the  very  genius  of  destruction. 

Now  this  expatriated  goat  rejected  the  prostra- 
tions and  worship  of  the  Nuwukmeun,  like  a 
capricious  deity,  and  perversely  clung  to  us  with 
embarrassing  insistence.  The  launch  had  been 
put  in  the  water;  it  seemed  almost  ideal  in  its 
qualities,  it  shot  through  the  water,  it  turned  at  a 
suggestion;  its  mobility,  its  steadiness,  its  com- 
fortable size,  its  ample  deck  room,  the  large  capa- 
city of  its  storage  tanks,  its  strength  and  sinewy 
stiffness  delighted  us.  With  this,  and  with  propiti- 
ous chances,  we  could  follow  leads,  narrow  and 
crooked,  mount  the  ice,  and  make  of  it  a  giant  sled, 
to  resume  at  an  instant's  notice  its  natural  home 
and  so  circumvent  all  treacheries  of  ice  or  water, 
with  protean  ease  sailing  on  each. 

Lost  in  his  admiration  of  his  creation,  as  it  rose 
and  rocked  in  a  low  swell  at  the  side  of  the  whaler, 
Goritz  stood  on  the  shore  and  forgot  his  priceless 
chronometer  which,  wrapped  in  a  red  flannel  rag, 
he  had  for  a  moment  placed  on  the  sand.  The 
rest  of  us  were  not  far  from  him,  but  might  have 
failed  to  detect  the  imminent  danger,  when  sud- 
denly the  Professor  clapping  his  hands  together  in 
vigorous   whacks,    shouted, 

"Antoine!  Antoine!  The  goat,  the  goat;  the 
chronom — " 

The  sentence  remained  incomplete.  Like  a  flash 
Goritz  had  wheeled  about,  to  see  his  hircine  holi- 
ness, with  insufferable  assurance,  pick  up  in  his 
tremulous  lips  the  precious  watch.  If  Goritz 
turned  like  lightning,  his  attack  on  the  offender  was 
even  a  trifle  quicker.     He  caught  the  beast  by  the 


86  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

throat,  determined  to  intercept  the  descent  of  the 
timekeeper  into  the  intricate  passages  of  the  god's 
intestines.  There  was  a  struggle,  the  goat  falHng 
over  on  its  back  and  kicking  with  might  and  main, 
while  Goritz  inexorably  tightened  his  constricting 
grip  on  the  animal's  wind-pipe.  There  could  be 
but  one  of  two  results — a  dead  goat  or  the  recovered 
chronometer,  and,  of  course,  it  was  the  latter. 

The  choking  mascot,  with  an  expiring  effort, 
gagged,  and  shot  the  uninjured  instrument,  still 
swathed  in  its  red  envelope,  from  his  mouth.  The 
fallen  god's  subjects  were  at  hand  also,  a  little 
bewildered  over  their  deity's  predicament.  When 
the  reparation,  on  the  part  of  the  goat,  was  made, 
Goritz  released  him,  kicked  him,  and  the  humili- 
ated tuna  turned  tail  and  incontinently  bolted  for 
the  nearest  igloo,  and — tell  it  not  in  Gath — the 
affair  was  construed  as  a  ''good  sign." 

It  was  the  eve  of  the  day  appointed  for  our  north- 
ward advance.  Captain  Coogan  invited  the 
officers  of  another  recently  arrived  whaler  aboard, 
and  spread  a  generous  banquet  for  us,  which 
involved  the  last  resources  of  his  larder  and  pantry, 
and  really  seemed  sumptuous.  I  think  we  all  felt 
a  little  overawed,  or  indeed  a  good  deal  so,  by  the 
tremendous  exploit  we  were  embarking  on.  That 
night  the  midnight  sun  shone  strangely  along  the 
horizon  upon  the  waste  of  northern  ice,  illimitable, 
roseate,  inscrutable,  the  white  cerement  of  a  dead 
continent,  and  that  dead  continent  the  one  we 
hoped  to  reach  alive!    Would  we? 

There  were  speeches,  toasts,  stories,  impromptu 
songs  (Goritz  played  well  on  a  mandolin  and  sang 
some  courage-inspiring  ballads  of  Scandinavia,  and 
Hopkins  could  "warble"  as  he  called  it,  quite 
pleasingly)  and  we  were  wished  "good  luck"  a 
thousand  times.  Still  we  felt  the  restraint  of  an 
overhanging  mysterious  fate,  and  all  that  Coogan 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  87 

or  Isaac  Stanwix,  or  Bell  Phillips,  or  Jack  Spent,  or 
the  newly  arrived  friends  from  Alaska,  could  con- 
trive to  express  of  cheer  and  encouragement — and 
the  verbal  part  of  the  contrivance  was  rather 
limited  and  monotonous — failed  to  dispel  our 
solemnity  or  the  inner  sense  of  serious  misgiving. 
We  laughed  indeed  when  Hopkins  told  the  story 
of  the  goat,  the  chronometer  and  the  goat's  abrupt 
contrition  under  Goritz's  forcible  persuasion. 
Hopkins  concluded  that  it  reminded  him  of  an 
incident  "at  home"  narrated  as  follows  in  verse: 

"There  was  a  man  named  Joseph  Cable 
Who  bought  a  goat  just  for  his  stable. 
One  day  the  goat,  prone  to  dine. 
Ate  a  red  shirt  right  off  the  line, 

"Then  Cable  to  the  goat  did  say: 
'Your  time  has  come;  you'll  die  this  day' 
And  took  him  to  the  railroad  track, 
And  bound  him  there  upon  his  back. 

"The  train  then  came;   the  whistle  blew, 
And  the  goat  knew  well  his  time  was  due; 
But  with  a  mighty  shriek  of  pain 
Coughed  up  the  shirt  and  flagged  the  train." 

When  all  was  over,  and  everyone  had  gone  to  bed 
or  bunk,  and  dreams,  I  stole  out  alone  on  the  deck 
of  the  "Astrum"  and  "thought  it  over."  The  Arctic 
silence  weighed  upon  me  like  an  ominous  portent; 
the  dusky  sun  rolling  its  flaming  orb  along  the 
western  horizon  (it  was  two  o'clock  past  midnight) 
sent  shafts  of  bronzy  light  over  the  rubbled  ice 
fields  that  returned  a  twilight  glow,  and  along  the 
horizon  on  either  side  of  the  sun,  low  down,  burned 
a  spectral  conflagration.  It  was  clear,  the  wind 
blew,  and  chafing  sounds,  that  may  have  been 
roars  from  where  they  emanated,  but  came  to  me  as 


88  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

hoarse  whispers,  rose  northward,  as  if  spirits  spoke. 

I  remembered  how  Ootah,  the  Eskimo,  explained 
Peary's  success  in  reaching  the  pole;  he  said  'Hhe 
devil  is  asleep  or  having  trouble  with  his  wife,  or  we 
should  never  have  come  back  so  easily."  I  devoutly 
prayed  that  domestic  turmoil  in  the  household  of 
his  Satanic  majesty  might  again  prove  distracting. 

But  to  penetrate  that  vast  icy  solidity  with  a 
naphtha  launch!  It  seemed  like  trying  to  break 
one's  way  through  a  glacier  with  an  ice  pick.  I 
recalled  the  fable  of  the  Pied  Piper  when  at  the 
"mighty  top"  of  Koppelberg  Hill: 

"A  wondrous  portal  opened  wide 

As  if  a  cavern  were  suddenly  hollowed," 

and  I  remembered  too,  to  a  more  practical  purpose, 
that  Amundsen  navigated  the  tiny  "Gjea,"  a  sailing 
sloop  with  a  gasoline  engine,  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific. 


CHAPTER  III 
On  The  Ice  Pack 

Our  task  was  before  us  and  it  was  to  be  entered 
upon  at  once.  Perhaps  you  are  thinking  that  we 
were  hopelessly  amateurish,  inconsiderate,  im- 
provident and  foolish.  BUT  WE  SUCCEEDED. 
Nor  were  we  forgetful  or  ignorant.  Everything 
had  been  read.  The  elaborate  preparations  for 
polar  exploration  in  the  great  expeditions  had  been 
studied.  Two  of  us  had  been  in  the  north  before. 
The  apparent  simplicity  of  our  outfit  arose  from  a 
peculiar  circumstance,  and  that  was  an  imbedded 
conviction,  perhaps  only  in  me  shaken  by  recurrent 
fits  of  alarm,  that  Krocker  Land  was  a  reality,  and 
that  it  was  habitable.    And  that  meant  life  and  living. 

Then  too  we  had  fallen  under  a  spell  of  imagina- 
tion, we  had  become  hopelessly  enthralled  in  the 
visions  of  a  new  order  of  things.  It  was  as  if  we 
had  drunk  draughts  of  some  Medean  drug  that  had 
stolen  away  our  common  sense  and  immersed  us  in 
a  flood  of  fantasies.  I  don't  think  we  confessed 
anything  concretely  to  one  another;  we  talked  to- 
gether about  Krocker  Land  just  as  men  might  talk 
about  some  portion  of  the  earth  that  they  had  never 
seen,  but  which  as  a  geographical  certainty  was  on 
the  maps  and  was  known  to  possess  an  unusual  in- 
terest. Perhaps,  after  all,  the  Professor  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  orientation  of  thought  that  made 
us  clairvoyant  and  credulous. 

7  89 


90  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Still  our  plans  had  been  fixed  with  a  dry  precision, 
as  those  of  other  explorers  had  been,  and  our  sup- 
plies comprised  just  the  things  that  stock  the  most 
prosaic  and  methodically  arranged  scientific  expedi- 
tions. We  had  our  tins  of  pemm.ican,  of  biscuit,  of 
sugar,  of  coffee,  condensed  milk,  our  oil  and  our  oil 
stoves.  We  were  each  provided  with  a  rifle,  a  shot- 
gun and  ammunition.  There  were  matches,  hat- 
chets, can  openers,  salt,  needles  and  thread, 
bandages,  quinine,  astringents,  liniments,  sledges 
and  kayaks,  dogs  and  harness,  tents,  furs,  alcohol, 
rugs,  snowshoes,  pickaxes,  saw-knives,  kamiks, 
certainly  more  things  than  Nansen  and  Johannsen 
had  had  when  they  left  the  "Fram"  and  scooted  for 
the  pole  over  the  paleocrystic  sea ;  and  we  were  not 
looking  for  the  pole,  we  were  engaged  in  a  trip  to  a 
continent,  most  certainly  impingeable,  because  it 
stretched  over  90  or  100  degrees  of  longitude,  and 
20  or  30  degrees  of  latitude. 

And  then — Ah,  here  our  minds,  irised,  so  to 
speak,  like  cracked  crystals,  furnished  us  a  journey 
into  fairy  land — once  there,  we  were  to  be  enter- 
tained by  wonders  and  comforts,  then  more 
wonders  and  comforts!  Had  we  ever  said  that  to 
each  other  consciously  in  our  waking  moments,  we 
would  have  forlornly  concluded  that  piblokto,  the 
Eskimo  hysteria,  had  carried  us  into  the  seventh 
heaven  of  affectation  and  madness.  No;  it  was 
not  fairy  land  indeed,  but  something  more  marvel- 
ous, a  miracle  of  realities  that  to  recall  even  now 
makes  my  head  spin  with  the  vertigo  of  a  confessed 
self-delusion.     LISTEN! 

We  had  staked  everything  on  the  naphtha 
launch.  As  an  invention  it  was  ideal.  We 
expected  to  drive  it  over  the  ice  fioes,  and  to  sail  it 
across  the  leads.  It  would  hold  all  we  needed,  and 
our  team  of  dogs,  forty  or  fifty  in  number,  would  be 
able  to  pull  it  over  the  ice.     If  it  was  too  heavy  in 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  91 

the  snows  it  could  be  lightened  of  its  load  on  the 
sledges,  or  on  the  sledge  teams  which  we  expected 
would  accompany  it.  The  project  appeared  a  little 
cumbersome  but  safe.  We  had  noticed  the  striking 
absence  from  the  western  polar  sea  of  icebergs,  and 
we  concluded  that  the  sea  north  of  Point  Barrow, 
like  the  sea  generally  north  of  Cape  Columbia  or 
Cape  Sheridan  was  a  frozen  water,  smooth  or  inter- 
rupted only  by  the  pressure  ridges  which  scarred 
its  surface  with  cyclopean  walls  of  massed  ice.  We 
had  indeed  gone  further  in  our  inferences,  and 
assumed  that  no  mountainous  elevations,  with  their 
chasms,  intervening  valleys  and  gorges  made  up  the 
coasts  of  Krocker  Land,  for  if  they  had,  as  in  Green- 
land or  Grant  Land  or  as  usually  in  the  eastern 
archipelago,  the  discharge  of  the  ice  streams  that 
filled  them  would  have  produced  icebergs.  Or  was 
the  annual  snowfall  inadequate? 

Certainly  the  spectacular  processions  of  the  ice- 
bergs every  spring  and  summer  in  the  east  were 
absent  in  the  west.  The  conditions  presented 
seemed  to  be  a  convincing  assurance  that  our 
naphtha  launch  and  ice  boat,  in  its  composite 
adaptation  to  land  or  water,  would  successfully 
traverse  the  flat  ice  sheet.  Not  indeed  that  it 
would  actually  be  a  plane  table,  but  the  obstacles 
of  hummocks,  piled  up  ice  floes,  ridges,  mounds 
and  walls  could  be  circumvented,  avoided,  and  the 
launch  bodily  driven  over  the  pack.  Such  maneuv- 
ers might  add  much  to  the  distance,  but  the  re- 
sources were  sufficient  for  a  long  journey,  and,  were 
we  made  to  feel  that  the  launch  offered  insurmount- 
able difficulties,  we  would  abandon  it,  increase  the 
loads  of  our  sledges  with  its  distributed  freight,  and 
go  on. 

The  naphtha  launch  was  a  simple  and  interesting 
vessel.  It  was  a  long,  narrow,  strong  wooden  raft 
with  curving  sides,  and  a  broad,  smooth  sloping 


92  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

bow,  reinforced  by  steel  binders,  bolts  and  rivets, 
set  on  runners,  with  a  short  tiller,  easily  unshipped, 
and  a  peculiar  slanting  propeller  which  was  simply 
one  rotating  blade  of  alternating  plates  of  wood  and 
steel,  allowing  a  shifting  attachment  to  the  engine, 
so  that  its  stem  could  be  shortened  or  length- 
ened, or  withdrawn  altogether,  and  the  pro- 
peller disk  sheathed  in  a  pocket  in  the  body  of  the 
vessel . 

The  upper  works  were  a  watertight  box  and 
nothing  more,  about  six  feet  in  height,  made  up  of 
two  skins,  between  which  was  packed  asbestos, 
built  strongly,  with  no  doors  or  windows.  A  few 
covered  eyelets  allowed  a  poor  sort  of  ventilation 
which  could  be  improved  by  opening  the  manhole 
on  top,  through  which  entrance  to  the  inside  was 
to  be  made.  Through  this  manhole  everything  we 
carried  was  introduced;  the  sledges  and  kayaks 
were  placed  on  its  roof.  This  box-cabin  covered 
three-fourths  of  the  length  of  the  boat.  The  bow 
admitted  the  socket  and  step  for  a  mast  and  a  small 
sail.  It  had  no  beauty,  no  speed,  but  we  believed 
it  was  adaptable  to  the  vicissitudes  of  travel  before 
us,  because  of  its  amphibious  properties.  If  fairly 
caught  in  an  ice  jam  it  would  be  crushed  like  a 
peanut  shell,  but  it  was  intended  to  rise  on  the  ice, 
and  we  expected  to  save  it  from  the  contingency  of 
any  ice  chancery  by  keeping  it  on  open  fields  of  ice. 

The  conditions  before  us  welcomed  this  treat- 
ment, or  at  least  we  thought  so.  We  could  give  it 
a  load  of  two  tons,  which  affords  an  equivalent  of 
one  ton  in  traction  force  to  haul,  so  that  forty  dogs, 
pulling  fifty  pounds  each,  would  draw  it,  and  this 
was  a  very  lenient  exaction.  Circumstances  vary, 
and  the  phases  of  Arctic  mutability  are  almost 
incalculable,  but  once  on  the  ice  we  anticipated 
success.  The  weak  feature  of  our  plan  was  the 
late  start.     If  nothing  could  be  negotiated,  in  the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  93 

slang  parlance  of  exploration,  we  would  return  to 
Point  Barrow  and  wait  until  later. 

The  long  days  invited  us  and  the  calculable 
chance  of  escaping  the  awful  winter  storms.  What 
we  probably  could  not  cross  were  the  large  pressure 
ridges  which  are  perhaps  twenty  feet  high,  a  fourth 
of  a  mile  in  width,  and  which  contain  individual 
masses  of  ice  as  big  as  a  small  house,  all  in  a  galli- 
maufry of  confusion.  But  we  would  flank  them 
somehow;  that  was  our  purpose.  The  summer 
might  give  us  good  leads,  winding,  penetrating 
lanes  of  water  drifting  through  labyrinthine  courses 
to  the  "promised  land."  It  was  there,  and  it  grew 
in  our  thoughts  every  day  as  more  and  more  desir- 
able. We  did  not  care  at  what  point  we  hit  it. 
Four  hundred  miles  ahead  of  us  somewhere  lay 
terra  firma,  and  the  conception  grew  in  magnitude, 
not  as  another  Greenland  buried  under  thousands 
of  feet  of  snow,  a  monstrous,  appalling  desert  of 
ice  scoured  by  hurricanes  and  chilled  in  death  with 
a  temperature  half  a  hundred  below  zero.  No!  By 
an  incomprehensible  infatuation  (the  Professor  had 
warped  our  judgments  by  his  indefatigable  prom- 
ises) we  were  convinced  that  Krocker  Land  con- 
tained the  resources  of  life. 

Had  not  Peary  at  Independence  Bay,  on  the  very 
northern  edge  of  Greenland,  found  flowers,  grass 
and  musk  oxen?  Had  he  not,  when  driving  for  the 
pole,  "repeatedly  passed  fresh  tracks  of  bear  and 
hare  together  with  numerous  fox  tracks"?  And 
then  those  uncovered  veins  of  gold  seaming  the 
primal  rocks,  how  they  swam  before  our  eyes  in 
yellow  reticulations  over  square  miles  of  quartz! 
We  had  become  decidedly  crazy  about  it  all,  for, 
unexpressed,  but  cherished  in  our  deepest  hearts 
were  fantastic  hopes  of  some  indescribable  faunal, 
floral,  human  remnant,  like  Conan  Doyle's  "Lost 
World"  or  the  Kosekin  in  De  Mille's  "Strange  MS 


94  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

in  a  Copper  Cylinder"  in  the  Antarctic,  and  that 
romantic  and  sufficing  Paradise  that  Paine  depicted 
in  "The  Great  White  Way,"  or  even  the  nightmare 
trances  and  inventions,  the  megalithic  splendors 
and  horrific  glories  of  Atvatabar,  or  the  mythic 
creatures  in  Etidorhpa.  And  yet  our  extravagan- 
cies of  imagination  were  all  finally  obliterated,  even 
to  memory,  in  the  grandeur  and  miracle  of  Reality. 

In  one  respect  we  altered  our  first  plan.  Hop- 
kins had  wished  to  have  three  Americans  selected 
to  bring  back  our  launch,  and  to  pick  us  up  again 
the  next  summer.  We  changed  that.  We  would 
never  come  back,  or  if  there  were  disappointments 
("Inconceivable,"  said  the  Professor)  we  would  get 
back  our  own  way  unaided,  and — 

(Erickson  looked  at  me  solemnly,  and  his  voice 
struck  a  sepulchral  tone  that  would  have  done 
credit  to  Paris  at  the  tomb  of  the  Capulets.) 

"And  Mr.  Link,  I  am  the  only  one  that  did  come 
back.  The  Professor  and  Hopkins  are  in  Krocker 
Land  today;    Goritz  is  dead." 

(He  resumed  his  narration.) 

Captain  Coogan  steamed  over  to  the  ice  pack 
which  lay  beyond  the  shore  channels  of  open  water, 
towing  our  launch,  which  certainly  now  seemed  to 
dwindle  into  an  inconsiderable  implement  of  inser- 
tion in  that  trackless  ocean  of  ice.  He  pushed  his 
way  through  the  "slob"  ice,  and  jammed  the  nose 
of  the  "Astrum"  upon  the  bulwarks  of  a  great  floe, 
whose  uneven,  rumpled  and  snow  encumbered  sur- 
face receded  into  a  measureless  distance,  veiled, 
gray,  dismal.  We  disembarked  with  the  dogs, 
the  launch  came  alongside,  Goritz  started  the 
engine  and  she  bucked  the  ice  hopelessly.  Then 
we  windlassed  her  onto  the  pack,  harnessed  the  dogs 
to  her  in  five  teams,  one  pack  from  the  bow,  two 
amidships  and  two  at  the  stern,  and  started. 
Goritz  and  I  were  good  teamsters,  and  Hopkins 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  95 

made  a  fair  try  at  it,  with  promiscuous  difficul- 
ties. The  rudder  and  tiller  were  unshipped.  It 
looked  as  if  she  would  "go."  We  did  not  make  fifty 
feet  in  our  trial,  but  the  dogs  certainly  could  pull  her 
easily  on  her  bone  runners.  Then  came  the  unload- 
ing of  our  supplies  from  the  steamer. 

The  day  was  most  favorable,  clear,  cold  and  still. 
The  wind  with  its  usual  aptitude  for  mischief  in 
these  northern  asylums  of  meteorological  chaos,  was 
waiting  to  catch  us  later.  We  packed  the  supplies, 
sledges,  two  kayaks,  guns,  ammunition,  stoves, 
oil,  pemmican,  and  the  assorted  constituents  of  the 
regular  provisioning  of  an  Arctic  expedition,  into 
and  on  the  launch,  which  made  a  very  original  and 
unique  picture.  The  Eskimos  who  came  offshore 
with  the  steamer  and  the  dogs  themselves  seemed 
quite  thoroughly  perplexed,  and  doubtless  enter- 
tained unspoken  and  unfavorable  opinions  as  to  our 
final  success,  and  the  dogs  were  perhaps  dubious  as 
to  their  own  fate. 

The  closing  hour  of  the  day,  scarcely  separable 
now  from  the  night,  with  the  sun  always  above  the 
horizon,  found  us  ready.  The  dogs  were  an 
anxiety.  We  hoped  to  feed  them  on  fresh  meat  in 
a  large  measure.  Seals,  the  flipper,  the  bearded, 
and  the  hooded,  were  common.  Goritz  and  I  were 
good  hunters,  and  a  better  shot  than  Hopkins  never 
lived.  Our  formal  relations  and  duties  were  pretty 
quickly  arranged.  Goritz  was  commander,  with 
especial  charge  of  the  dogs,  Hopkins  was  engineer, 
I  was  steward,  and  the  Professor  combined,  very 
happily,  the  services  of  cook  and  scientific  observer. 
We  started  with  one  hundred  dogs,  double  perhaps 
our  actual  needs,  but  the  sometimes  sudden  and 
unaccountable  mortality  among  these  animals 
justified  our  precaution. 

Then  came  the  leave  taking  and,  for  the  first 
time,  an  explicit  avowal  of  our  intentions,  with 


96  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Krocker  Land  pictured  as  our  destination,  and 
also  with  the  renewed  stipulation,  enforced  by  a 
signed  agreement  and  the  additional  security  of 
prepayment,  that  Coogan  should  return  the  follow- 
ing year  and  look  for  us.  I  have  said  we  did  not 
intend  to  return.  We  did  not,  but  then  that  reser- 
vation was  a  hidden,  peculiarly  communal  feeling, 
unspoken  and  realized  between  ourselves,  as  a 
psychological  dithyramb  which  we  didn't  confess  or 
particularize,  but  which  coerced  us  insensibly,  as  a 
mission  does  a  prophet,  an  ambition  a  conqueror, 
or  a  dream  a  poet.  Externally  our  demeanor  was 
of  the  ordinary  rational  type.  Coogan  should 
come  back  for  us — OF  COURSE. 

It  was  picturesque  and  unprecedented,  that 
leave  taking.  The  Arctic  scene,  the  outlandish  and 
piled  up  "Pluto,"  the  waiting,  serviceable  dogs, 
alert  and  incredulous,  the  swarthy,  grimy,  wrinkled, 
heterogeneous  natives,  ourselves  on  one  side  of  the 
pictorial  composition,  Coogan,  Stanwix,  Phillips, 
Spent  on  the  other,  with  the  crew  in  an  amazement 
of  disgust  hanging  over  the  steamer's  tafFrail, 
perched  in  the  rigging,  or  sauntering  near  us,  and 
that  illimitable  ice  packed  sea,  imperturbably 
plotting  our  destruction.  Hopkins  delivered  the 
valedictory. 

"My  friends,"  he  said  with  a  profound  sweep  of 
his  cap,  and  a  big  obeisance  that  made  the  Eskimos 
shout  with  glee,  "we're  off  for  parts  unknown. 
You  probably  entertain  a  rather  hopeful  feeling 
that  we'll  never  come  back.  May  be.  You  never 
can  tell.  At  this  end  of  the  earth  the  unusual 
usually  happens.  However,  we're  not  worrying. 
Not  in  the  least.  To  miss  the  resumption  of  your 
acquaintance  would  distress  us,  and  might  hurt 
your  feelings,  but  it's  a  case  of  taking  what  comes, 
and  kicking  don't  go  up  here.  You're  all  aware  of 
that.     No,  you  mustn't  put  us  in  a  class  by  our- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  97 

selves.  We  are  just  part  of  the  bunch,  that  for  the 
last  one  hundred  years  or  more  has  been  leaving 
cards  at  the  door  of  Our  Lady  of  Snows,  with  an 
occasional  intimation  on  the  part  of  her  ladyship 
that  the  visitors  were  welcome,  but  generally  with 
a  bolted  and  barred  entrance,  and  an  upset  of  snow, 
ice,  wind  and  zeros  from  the  upper  stories  of  her 
palatial  residence,  that  compelled  an  inglorious 
departure,  or  left  the  gentlemen  in  question  dead 
on  the  doorstep.  Well,  we're  ready  to  join  the 
previous  company. 

"Only  I  don't  think  so.  I'm  not  in  the  least 
nutty — I  hope  you  catch  me — and  there  are 
scientific  reasons — "  Hopkins  patted  the  back  of 
the  Professor — "scientific  reasons  for  banking  on  a 
safe  return,  with  the  goods,  for  all  of  us.  When 
that  happens,  my  friends,  you'll  be  very  glad  to  see 
us.  Nothing  will  be  too  good  for  us,  nothing  too 
handsome.  The  ordinary  brand  of  explorer  won't 
be  in  it  with  us,  for  if  that  kind  gets  back  with  his 
clothes  on,  and  the  breath  in  his  body,  he  gets  in 
the  picture  supplements,  is  put  up  for  sale  to  the 
highest  bidder  for  receptions,  cornerstone  laying, 
and  memorial  exercises;  he  can  put  the  whole 
country  to  sleep  listening  to  his  talk  at  one  hundred 
per — minute! — and  is  never  known  to  disappear 
from  the  public  eye  until  he  crosses  the  Styx  on 
another  kind  of  expedition  from  which  there 
certainly  is   no  'come  back.' 

"That  won't  be  our  way.  When  next  we  reach 
New  York,  and  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of 
the  brave,  our  suit  cases  will  be  so  full  of  boodle  that 
you  won't  be  able  to  shut  them  with  a  steam  com- 
pressor, and  we  can  give  you  cross  references  to  all 
the  original  sources  of  all  the  gold  that  the  world 
ever  had  or  can  have.  The  trusts  won't  be  in  it, 
John  Rockefeller  will  dwindle  into  invisibility,  and 
the  bunko  lords  and  potentates  on  the  other  side  of 


98  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

the  big  pond,  always  fishing  for  big  money  will  just 
scramble  to  get  in  first  to  sell  their  junk  crowns  to 
us.  JUST  WAIT.  If  there's  an  income  tax  on 
our  return,  we'll  undertake  single  handed  to  run  the 
government  and,  what's  more  expensive,  buy  up  the 
politicians.  Fact,  Captain  Coogan;  fact,  Mate 
Stanwix;  fact,  Engineer  Phillips;  fact.  Jack  Spent; 
fact,  all  of  you!"  And  Hopkins  executed  another 
inclusive  gyration,  "And  now.  Good  bye." 

I  don't  think  his  audience  took  him  in,  or  else 
their  previous  convictions  were  only  somewhat 
strengthened  by  this  nondescript  allocution.  The 
Professor  smiled  benignly.  Goritz  grunted  ap- 
proval, I  felt  queerly  elated.  Coogan  came  for- 
ward, hoped  it  would  all  turn  out  right,  promised 
to  look  for  us  next  summer,  told  us  to  stack  up  all 
the  spare  meat  we  could  when  the  winter  set  in  and 
shook  hands.  There  was  no  more  speech  making; 
the  rest  came  forward  and  shook  hands  too,  as  did 
all  the  Eskimos.  Jack  Spent,  the  carpenter,  with 
his  spectacles  on  his  nose,  and  his  brushy  whiskers 
stiffened  out  like  a  privet  hedge,  tried  to  sing  a  song, 
which  by  reason  of  its  quavering  falsetto  brought 
howls  from  the  Nuwukmeun.     Its  import  ran: 

"Good  Luck  to  you  my  trusty  mates, 
Good  Luck  and  Fortune  brave. 
May  God  and  all  the  kindly  Fates 
Your  souls  and  bodies  save." 

The  groups  turned  back,  the  grave  Eskimos 
climbing  in  last,  over  the  "Astrum's"  rail.  The 
steamer  backed  out  of  the  "porridge,"  and  we, 
impatient  to  be  off,  trimmed  up  the  dogs,  tightened 
the  ropes  over  the  pyramidal  freight,  and  cheering 
as  we  heard  the  parting  whistles  from  the 
"Astrum,"  soon  hazily  obscured  in  a  rising  evening 
dusk,  went  northward  over  the  great  ice  field  before 
us. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  99 

The  dogs  were  alert,  the  yacht-sledge  went  along 
well,  the  ice  was  sloppy  but  fairly  smooth,  and  the 
floe  had  apparently  escaped  the  contusions,  bumps 
and  collisions,  which  heap  up  these  Arctic  rafts 
with  mounds,  faults  and  pressure  ridges,  over  which 
our  unusual  equipage  never  could  have  made  its 
way.  As  it  was,  we  at  times  traveled  slowly  enough , 
avoiding  inequalities  and  dodging  obstreperous 
humps.  Towards  evening  of  that  first  day 
the  thermometer  fell,  an  easterly  wind  came  out  of 
the  sullen  eastern  sky,  the  snow  flakes  floated 
thickly  in  the  air,  and  the  sun  glared  like  a  gigantic 
ruby  in  the  west,  across  which  scurried  veils  from 
snow  banks,  eclipsing  and  revealing  it  at  inconstant 
intervals — an  augury  of  a  storm. 

We  camped;  that  is  we  unharnessed  the  dogs, 
who  proceeded,  accordingly  to  the  conventional 
style,  immemorially  recorded,  to  tie  themselves  up 
into  yelping  snarls  of  fur  and  harness;  we  lit  our 
stove,  partook  of  tea  and  pemmican,  biscuit  and 
marmalade  (Yes,  Mr.  Link,  marmalade)  and  slipped 
into  protected  nooks,  amid  the  boxes  on  our  diminu- 
tive ark.  As  the  wind  was  rising  we  turned  her 
lengthwise  to  the  wind  to  prevent  a  capsize, 
wedged  her  forward  and,  under  warning  to  jump  to 
the  ice  if  anything  happened — a  generalized  warn- 
ing for  almost  every  sort  of  disturbance — tried  to 
sleep. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  dreams  came  to  me,  and 
when  they  did  come  they  were  unwelcome,  for  I 
seemed  to  be  helplessly  struggling  up  an  inclined  plain 
of  ice  over  which  flowed  a  sheet  of  icy  water.  I  woke 
with  a  start.  A  roaring  sound,  almost  stunning  in 
its  loudness,  came  through  the  snowladen  air.  The 
snowfall  had  increased  and  might  have  deadened 
the  distant  report  had  it  not  been  for  the  hissing 
wind  which  brought  the  sound  sharply  to  our  ears, 
mingling  it  menacingly  with  its  own  sibilant  fury. 


100  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Another  and  another!  We  all  tumbled  out  on  the 
ice.  The  floe  shook.  We  distinctly  felt  its  tremors 
under  our  feet,  and,  as  it  were,  subterranean  crack- 
ing and  splitting  noises  developed  underneath  us,  as 
if  the  floe  might  break.  It  was  an  anxious  mo- 
ment. But  the  floe  was  some  eight  feet  thick,  a 
resistant  mass  that  might  easily,  however,  succumb 
to  cleavage  surfaces.  The  booming  sound  ceased, 
but  a  prolonged  crushing  and  rattling  followed. 
Goritz  clapped  his  hands.  It  seemed  an  unac- 
countable exhibition  of  spirits. 

"Well,"  exclaimed  Hopkins,  "what  do  you  make 
ofit?" 

"The  best  thing  for  us.  We've  got  another 
length  laid  out  for  us  on  the  straight  track  to 
Krocker  Land.  This  floe  probably  ended  off  there 
somewhere,"  he  pointed  northeast,  "and  now 
another  has  struck  it,  crumpling  the  edges.  We're 
not  making  such  progress  as  we  thought.  The 
whole  sea  is  in  motion,  but  pretty  nearly  due  east, 
so  that  as  long  as  we  go  forward  the  easting  does 
not  hold  us  back  on  the  northing,  or  very  little." 

"What  do  you  say  to  breaking  up  camp  now. 
Let's  see  what's  happened,"  suggested   Hopkins. 

"Certainly,"  chimed  in  the  Professor,  "Krocker 
Land  has  a  long  coast  of  course.  The  nearer  we  get 
to  it  the  greater  likelihood  of  eddies,  conflicting 
currents,  flood  tides  and  even  favoring  winds 
driving  us  ashore.     I'm  for  the  advance." 

"And  I,"  I  concurred.  We  dug  out  the  dogs, 
who  were  not  very  deeply  covered,  fed  them,  had 
tea  and  biscuit  and  some  potted  beef  stew,  and 
were  off".  Goritz  calculated  we  had  covered  eight 
miles  in  northing,  though  our  speculative  way 
around  obstacles  had  made  the  actual  stretch 
spanned  much  longer. 

Curiosity  and  suspense  conflictingly  urged  us  to 
make  haste.     The  snow  died  away  with  the  wind, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  101 

and  the  sun,  running  its  cartwheel  course  along  the 
horizon,  again  watched  us  from  the  east  in  a  clear 
sky.  It  was  a  "gorgeous  Arctic  day."  The  sum- 
mer heat  had  not  yet  too  strongly  prevailed,  and  the 
air  almost  sparkled  over  the  dazzling  splendor  of 
the  ice,  undulating  where  it  was  seen  in  spaces 
somewhat  cleared  of  snow,  or  spread  with  the  deep 
ermine  of  the  snow  itself,  which  again,  in  rifts, 
drifts  or  circular  heaps,  reflected  the  sun  like  a 
firmament  of  pinpoint  stars.  The  snow,  melting, 
became  compressed,  and  at  length  a  duller  lustre 
relieved  our  eyes  of  the  strain  of  the  almost  insup- 
portable brilliancy  of  the  morning  hours. 

We  had  made  sluggish  headway,  the  wet  snow 
clogging  and  detaining  us;  indeed  we  lightened  the 
load  on  the  yacht-sledge,  and  used  the  sledges  and 
extra  dogs  to  improve  our  progress.  About  noon 
we  saw  the  results  of  the  night's  collision.  A 
toppling  but  not  very  high  pressure  ridge  had 
soared  upward  between  our  floe  and  another,  pre- 
sumably larger,  for  it  had  overtaken  the  one  we 
were  on.  On  that  floe  we  must  ourselves  continue 
our  advance,  for  already  to  the  north  and  west  we 
saw  the  broad  leads  of  open  water,  indicated  to 
Goritz's  experienced  eyes  by  the  dark  "water  blink" 
seen,  as  he  told  us,  the  day  before. 

But  how  to  surmount  the  barrier  of  ice  blocks? 
Goritz  and  Hopkins  went  forward  to  investigate, 
the  Professor  and  myself  watching  the  dogs  whose 
sudden  alternations  of  obedience  and  mutiny  kept 
us  perpetually  active.  Hopkins  found  a  less 
prominent  section  of  the  ridge,  where  the  slanting 
and  unevenly  disposed  blocks  might  be  flattened  to 
aid  our  progress,  or  be  shattered  into  fragments, 
with  dynamite.  We  adopted  Peary's  expedient  in 
shaking  the  "Roosevelt"  free  of  ice  at  Lincoln  Bay. 
Dynamite  sticks  attached  to  poles  were  stuck 
among  the  blocks,  and  connected  by  wires  to  our 


102  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

battery.  Then  we  turned  on  the  current.  The 
explosion  seemed  to  stop  our  hearts  and  breath,  but 
if  it  did  we  were  conscious  enough  to  wonder  at  the 
fountain  of  splintered  ice  that  rose  like  a  geyser  in 
the  air,  shimmering  too  with  ten  thousand  irises 
against  the  sun,  as  it  subsided  with  clatter  and 
tinkling  to  the  floe. 

We  had  cleared  our  way  and  to  our  exultation  the 
avenue  opened  showed  us  a  wonderfully  level  and 
unencumbered  field  of  ice.  This  obstruction  might 
have  been  circumvented  by  taking  to  the  water, 
but  too  late  we  realized  the  danger  of  being  crushed 
in  the  battling  floes  that  swirled  together  with  the 
current  or  were  driven  by  the  winds.  It  was  a 
prudent  measure  to  keep  to  the  ice  at  present.  Our 
launch  was  flat,  rounded  and  intended,  like  the 
"Fram,"  to  rise  over  the  squeezing  ice  blocks.  But 
would  it?  It  seemed  a  trifle  topheavy,  with  its 
varied  load.  An  upset  would  have  been  fatal;  the 
dogs  would  be  lost. 

And  now  joy  ruled,  hope  rose,  the  promise  seemed 
granted.  Oh,  the  incurable  madness  of  human 
dreams.  A  gleam  of  light  betokens  the  full  day; 
it  may  be  only  a  ray  from  a  lantern,  or  the  quiet 
before  the  storm  gives  assurance  of  eternal  peace; 
it  may  be  but  the  presage  of  the  tempest. 

We  drove  in  triumph  through  the  dismantled 
gateway,  pierced  by  the  convulsion  of  those  yellow 
sticks  of  doom.  Out  on  the  white  field,  on  which 
perhaps  only  the  wind  had  left  its  imprint,  which  no 
eye  but  that  all-seeing  orb  of  day  had  ever  scanned, 
whose  silence  only  the  winds,  the  waves,  the  storm- 
ing ice  had  ever  broken,  and  which  now,  the  first 
time  since  Eternity  began  its  reign  there,  was 
rudely  assailed — we  imagined  it  as  an  astonished 
deity — by  yelping  dogs  and  four  hurrahing  mortals! 

The  snow  was  deep  and  melting,  but  our  dogs 
(Goritz  had  harnessed  all  the  dogs  and  they  were 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  103 

still  in  good  condition)  dragged  the  strange  bulk  of 
our  ice  yacht  with  its  rocking  cargo  at  a  topping 
speed.  Exhilaration  reigned,  we  were  hilarious 
with  confidence.  It  was  not  long  before  Hopkins, 
in  spite  of  the  heavy  trudging,  indulged  in  some 
characteristic  musical  levity,  and  his  baritone  notes 
finely  contrasted  with  the  silence  of  that  void,  in 
which  we  alone  seemed  sentient  and  animated. 

It  was  a  college  reminder,  and  I  just  recall  that 
the  refrain  had  a  most  freakish  incongruity : 

"  '  'Twas  on  the  Arctic  polar  pack 
I  smoked  my  last  cigar.'  " 

Well,  the  merriment  did  not  last  long.  In  about 
an  hour  we  saw  before  us  a  rising  hillside,  the  snow 
sloping  up  to  an  elevation  of  twenty  feet  or  more 
and  having  drifted  in  thick  mounds  above  and 
below  it.  We  halted.  Goritz  plunged  forward 
and  struggled  to  the  top  of  the  eminence.  We 
noticed  him  turning  from  side  to  side,  leaning  for- 
ward, looking  backward  too  over  our  heads,  tramp- 
ing up  and  down  like  a  dog  on  a  lost  scent.  Then 
he  waved  his  arms.  We  understood  his  summons. 
I  watched  the  dogs,  and  Hopkins  and  the  Professor 
ran  on,  tumbling  into  the  white  heaps,  apparently 
hitting  slippery  surfaces  below,  which  sent  them 
sprawling  in  a  splutter  of  white  dust.  The  three 
men  at  length  stood  together  and  their  gesticula- 
tions made  black  strokes  against  a  white-gray  sky. 
There  was  rain  coming.  I  knew  we  had  struck  a 
break;  there  was  a  bad  hole  ahead  with  a  poor 
chance  of  getting  over  it.  Slowly  the  three 
returned,  and  it  was  Hopkins  who  gave  the  first 
intimation  of  the  difficulty. 

"Mr.  Erickson,  we've  been  a  little  'previous'  in 
our  expectations.  I  think  perhaps  that  psalm  of 
joy  was  a  mistaken  indulgence  on  my  part,  or  else 
I  unconsciously  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  and — our 


104  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

last  cigar  will  be  smoked  here  and  a  few  other  last 
things  may  happen  along  with  it.  Go  up  and  look 
at  the  scenery." 

He  motioned  to  the  snowhill.  I  did  not  need  the 
invitation,  I  was  already  on  my  way,  noticing 
Goritz's  gravity  and  the  absertce  of  the  Professor's 
static  grin.  And  in  the  interval  that  may  be 
allowed  between  my  first  step  and  my  surmounting 
the  snow  bank  covering  the  topsy-turvy  abattis  of 
ice  blocks,  a  paragraph  of  explanation  may  be 
wisely  inserted. 

Anyone  familiar  with  experiences  of  Arctic 
voyagers  in  this  western  Arctic  sea,  as  for  instance 
the  thrilling  pages  of  DeLong's  diary  in  the  dis- 
astrous "Jeannette"  expedition,  will  recall  the  fact 
of  the  broken  condition  of  the  polar  pack  in  the 
summer,  and  its  hitherto  almost  invariably  pictured 
confusion  of  peaks,  ridges  and  pits.  Such  a  person 
would  question  the  truthfulness  of  the  few  previous 
pages  and  note  incredulously  the  absence  of  any 
remonstrance  on  the  part  of  the  "Astrum's" 
officers  at  our  foolhardy  undertaking.  There  was 
remonstrance  enough  however.  We  were  told  we 
could  not  live  in  the  broken,  smashing,  surging  ice; 
that  there  was  no  even  ice  floor;  that  everything 
was  uneasy,  perilous,  shifting,  open ;  that  we  should 
wait  until  winter  had  solidified  the  mass,  and  then 
"just  hike  it  north." 

And  we  knew  pretty  well  ourselves  just  what 
everyone  else  had  seen  and  recorded.  But  we  took 
the  chance,  and  by  a  perfect  miracle  of  opportunity 
found  there  was,  outside  of  Point  Barrow  a  marvel- 
ous field  of  ice  suited  for  our  progress.  (The  real 
word  turned  out  to  be  occupancy .) 

Well,  I  got  to  the  top  of  the  snow  pile,  and  my 
heart  beat  a  rapid  retreat  to  my  boots  at  the  sight 
before  me.  Ice,  ice,  ice,  but  everywhere  in  blocks 
smiting  each  other,  rolling,  rocking,  jamming,  and 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  105 

all  together  crying  aloud  in  a  jargon  of  groans, 
shivers,  reports,  grumbles,  growls,  like  packs  of 
quarreling  dogs  or  wolves.  It  was  a  disconcerting, 
discouraging  spectacle,  and  it  stretched  endlessly 
away  on  every  side.  And  in  the  middle  distance, 
looming  larger  each  instant,  rose  a  fioeberg  that 
came  on,  shoving  to  the  right  and  left  the  ice 
shards  about  it,  resistlessly,  as  the  steel  prow  of  a 
cruiser  or  battleship  might  sweep  a  flotilla  of  boats 
and  barges  from  the  path  of  its  imperious  progress. 

Its  pinnacle  blazed  in  the  sun;  its  prow,  a  pointed 
ice  foot,  pierced  the  obstacles  before  it  with  a  rat- 
tling discharge  of  rending  and  splitting;  then 
came  an  ominous  silence  and  the  powerful  ice  ram 
rushed  down  upon  us  through  softer  or  smaller 
particles  that  brushed  to  each  side  in  parting  waves. 
A  few  minutes  more  and  its  collision  with  our  floe 
would  follow,  and  then — ?  I  saw  too  quickly  we 
could  make  no  headway  in  that  hurly-burly  of  dis- 
order, and  then  the  thought  flashed  on  me  that  in 
the  pathway  of  this  rushing  dreadnought  of  the 
north  lay  death  and  destruction. 

I  leaped  down  the  pressure  ridge  and  regaining 
my  feet  at  its  base  ran  on  shouting  to  the  others, 
who  were  arrested  by  my  sudden  return,  "Back! 
Back!  Back!"  waving  to  them  to  get  away. 
Goritz  understood,  the  rest  followed  him.  The 
dogs  were  wheeled  round,  the  crack  of  the  long 
whips  sounded  in  their  ears,  and  the  sting  of  the 
lash  tingled  on  their  backs.  The  lumbering 
"Pluto"  swept  in  a  half  circle,  and  was  shot  along 
the  trail  we  had  just  made  towards  the  south. 
Perhaps  we  had  gained  a  hundred  yards,  when  the 
jolt  came.  It  threw  us  on  our  faces  and  upset  the 
dogs.  It  came  with  a  queer,  smothered  roar  that 
sharpened  into  a  long,  rending  shriek;  the  ice 
beneath  shook  with  the  blow,  and  then — parted! 
A   seam   opened   below   the    "Pluto,"    and   water 


106  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

spouting  from  underneath  covered  the  rearward 
dogs.  The  Professor  and  Hopkins  were  on  the 
separated  section.  They  sprang  forward,  while 
Goritz  jumped  to  his  feet  in  a  flash,  and  played  his 
whip  like  a  demon  on  the  dogs  who  seemed,  to  my 
eyes,  tied  up  in  its  rapid  convolutions. 

The  yacht-sledge  crossed  the  chasm,  and  I,  a 
short  distance  behind,  on  the  "calf"  made  by  the 
impact,  pitched  into  the  gap.  I  came  up  like  a  cork 
and  instantly  felt  Hopkins'  hand  in  the  neck  of  my 
coat.  He  dragged  me  out  and  for  the  moment  we 
were  safe. 

But  behind  us  ploughed  on  the  devastator.  A 
closer  view  revealed  a  great  hulk  of  ice  blocks 
heaped  up,  up-ended  pieces  of  the  floeberg,  perhaps 
forty  feet  high.  It  would  strike  us  again,  the  shock 
of  its  first  blow  had  allowed  the  strong  current  to 
turn  its  extension  northward,  and  it  was  slowly 
revolving  on  a  water  pivot,  and  another  face  was 
about  to  deliver  a  second  disrupting  blow  further 
along.  There  were  no  councils  held  just  then. 
We  scampered  out  of  danger  at  our  best  speed, 
leaping  to  the  sides  of  the  "Pluto"  and  helping  to 
pull  with  the  dogs,  all  together,  with  a  simultaneous 
inspiration.  It  worked  well.  We  were  slipping 
along  fast,  thanks  to  the  level  surface,  when  BANG, 
and  then  bang  again,  and  then  a  fierce  ripping 
sound. 

"A  wallop  on  the  slats,  and  a  jolt  under  the  chin. 
That  rocks  us,''  exclaimed  Hopkins  spasmodically. 

Goritz  was  keeping  the  air  over  the  dogs  blue 
with  imprecations  and  hot  with  the  winnowing 
lashes  of  his  whip.  We  were  too  late.  Twenty  or 
more  feet  ahead  a  black  jagged  line  suddenly  ran 
over  the  ice,  a  million  unseen  hands  seemed  to  have 
seized  the  farther  edge  of  the  seam  and  pushed  it 
open  with  frightful  speed.  Deliberation  was 
impossible,  but  there  must  be  a  decision  of  some 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  107 

sort,  "right  off  the  bat,''  as  Hopkins  would  say.  It 
came. 

Goritz  called  back,  "Shoot  it!  Loosen  the  dogs! 
All  aboard!" 

We  cast  off  the  loops  from  the  cleats,  always 
intended  for  quick  release,  and  prepared  for  em- 
barkation. The  word  "prepared"  does  not  fit,  for 
it  was  preparation  wound  to  the  top-notch  of  pre- 
cipitancy. Goritz  turned  the  forward  teams  of 
dogs  and  slowed  the  momentum  of  the  boat-sledge. 
She  slid  on,  however,  and  almost  dumped  into  the 
lead  that  had  been  formed;  a  fortunate  hump  of 
ice  blocked  her  and  made  her  cargo  of  boxes  and  tins 
rattle  absurdly.  It  had  a  silly  effect  like  the  wail 
of  a  baby  in  a  storm.  I  long  remembered  it.  Get- 
ting the  dogs  stowed  was  troublesome.  We  had 
seventy  (thirty  had  been  discarded  and  sent  back 
with  Coogan)  but  pemmican  pitched  on  the  boat 
hurried  them  aboard  and  kept  them  there.  Then 
we  pushed  the  boat  overboard,  holding  her  back 
with  boathooks.  In  another  instant  we  were  on 
her,  too,  and  the  little  voyage  towards  the  receding 
ice  began — towards  the  larger  mass,  which  we 
believed  to  be  still  connected  with  the  ice  field  we 
had  first  traversed.  That  was  a  trifle,  but  it  was 
another  matter  lifting  her  to  the  surface  of  the  pack. 
We  sloped  the  edge  with  picks,  anchored  a  capstan 
on  the  ice,  and  by  main  strength  hauled  her  on, 
putting  in  the  dogs  at  the  final  pull.  We  fed  the 
dogs,  fed  ourselves,  and  took  time  to  think.  As 
Goritz  remarked,  "there  was  some  room  for 
thought." 

Our  dilemma  was  this:  Should  we  try  to  regain 
the  first  floe  cake,  through  the  gateway  we  had 
made  in  the  pressure  ridge,  or  stay  where  we  were? 
In  any  case  the  complete  breakup  of  our  platform 
involved  sticking  to  the  boat,  trusting  that  she 
would  not  be  crushed  and  waiting  for  the  colder 


108  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

days  when  the  cementation  of  the  floes  would  begin, 
when  we  could  push  northward  somehow  over  the 
ice.  A  reconnaissance  settled  the  question.  Our 
first  floe  had  parted,  the  pressure  ridge  had  disap- 
peared; south  of  us,  as  all  around  us,  was  the 
treacherous,  shifting,  pulverized  ice  pack  (the 
particles  of  the  pulverization  were  often  small 
rafts).  We  drilled  the  ice  and  found  it  from  four 
to  six  feet  thick,  and  took  our  position  in  the  center. 
We  w'ere  beleaguered;  as  with  Marshal  Bazaine  it 
w'as  Ty  suis,fy  reste,  for  each  of  us.  A  storm  was 
brewing,  the  wind  rose  and,  as  Mikkelsen  has 
described  it,  the  ice  floes  "ducked  and  dipped  and 
hacked  at  each  other,  crushing  and  being  crushed." 

"Aslong  as  our  island  holds  outwe'resafe  enough, 
and  if  some  good  leads  develop  we  might  strike  the 
water,  and  make  off  for  another,"  said  Goritz. 

"There's  no  place  like  home,"  said  Hopkins. 
"Stick  here.  We're  drifting  in  the  right  direction. 
W^hen  we  sight  the  metropolis  of  Krocker  Land  we 
can  hoist  our  colors  and,  if  there  are  proper  harbor 
facilities,  come  up  the  bay  under  full  steam.  I 
guess  the  Professor  understands  the  formalities  of 
these  upper  regions.  He  can  introduce  us  to  the 
mayor  and  the  aldermen  and  get  us  the  freedom  of 
the  city,  and  perhaps  we  can  negotiate  a  commercial 
treaty  that  will  give  the  United  States  of  America 
the  monopoly  of  the  ice  crop.  If  we  could  get  an 
attachment  on  these  rory-borealises  for  the  movies, 
it  would  be  a  mint." 

The  Professor  ignored  these  pleasantries.  He 
also  believed  our  safest  plan  was  to  stay  on  the  floe 
and  drift  at  present.  Game  would  turn  up  for  the 
dogs — seal,  w^alrus — and  when  we  touched  Krocker 
Land  (persistent  iteration  had  banished  all  doubts 
now  of  its  reality)  we  would  find  bear. 

"And  really,"  the  Professor  continued,  "nothing 
could   be  more  favorable   than  our  prospects  at 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  109 

present.  We  are  drifting  northwest;  wind  and 
tide  are  pushing  us  along  on  the  right  course. 
Krocker  Land,  my  friends,  is  not  one  hundred  miles 
away.  This  coming  storm  will  help  amazingly, 
and  I  see  no  reason  why  we  shouldn't  raise  sail." 

The  suggestion  was  overruled  by  Goritz.  The 
danger  of  collisions  was  too  great,  and  the  headway 
might  be  faster  than  we  could  overcome  if  we  were 
threatened  with  one.  The  ice  was  getting  softer; 
pools  of  water  glistened  all  around  us,  and  a  bad 
blow  might  break  us  up. 

Watches  were  kept,  and  as  the  light  lasted  the 
full  twenty-four  hours,  we  were  not  likely  to  be 
surprised  by  unsuspected  invasions.  The  higher 
floebergs  were  to  be  feared.  Their  bases,  prolonged 
far  below,  furnished  push  surfaces  to  the  tide  for 
perhaps  hundreds  of  feet,  and  their  mass  supplied 
momentum.  They  were  dangerous  neighbors. 
And  now  the  storm  rose  furiously  around  us. 
Except  for  our  peril  it  was  a  spectacle  we  might 
have  enjoyed.  The  Professor  alone  was  absolutely 
unconcerned,  and  his  nonchalance  calmed  our  own 
apprehensions. 

The  clouds  in  strips  and  bulging  banners  were 
carried  high  above  us.  Streamers  they  seemed, 
from  the  eastern  sky  where  the  high  lying  cirrus 
flakes,  slowly  expanding  into  shapeless  patches, 
had  already  delivered  their  usual  warning.  These 
again  were  soon  blotted  out  in  the  onrushing  scud 
all  around  us.  A  dull  yellow  light  at  first  spread 
its  sickly  tint  over  the  ice  field,  and  the  sun, 
darkened  and  blurred,  was  soon  utterly  cloaked 
from  view.  The  wind  rose  quickly,  brushing  close 
to  the  surface  of  the  ice,  ushering  in  interminable 
strife  among  the  pitching  blocks.  They  ground 
together,  and  the  swell,  started  below  them,  kept 
their  edges  pounding,  while  a  tumult  of  groans  and 
creaking  noises  like  the  smashing  of  heavy  glass 


no  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

raised  an  unceasing  din,  a  din  indeed  that  possessed 
some  of  the  elements  of  a  wild,  fascinating  rhythm. 
The  rain  came  in  pelting  downpours,  whipped  into 
horizontal  sheets  by  the  blast,  and  then  with  a 
sudden  drop  of  temperature  changed  to  blinding 
snow  flurries,  that  buried  everything  in  white  dust, 
and  sometimes  smote  us  with  the  sharpness  of 
myriad-edged  microscopic  needles. 

The  water  washed  in  long  flows  over  the  sides  of 
the  berg,  and  the  berg  itself  rocked  and  shook, 
threatening  to  start  our  ice-yacht  into  motion,  and 
to  carry  her  and  her  precious  cargo  into  the  whirl- 
ing, fighting  ice  about  us.  Fortunately  it  con- 
tinued to  grow  colder,  and  the  snow,  besides  offer- 
ing us  means  of  banking  the  yacht,  stem,  stern,  and 
prow,  and  ramming  her  bowl-shaped  sides  with  a 
stiff  embrace  from  which  a  jolt  would  hardly  free 
her,  provided  a  bed  for  the  poor  dogs,  who  were 
frantic  with  misery,  howling  and  whining  in  disgust. 

Our  berg  had  shrunk  considerably;  it  was  only  a 
remnant,  an  angle  of  the  big  field  we  had  entered 
with  such  rejoicing,  and  we  knew  it  was  getting 
smaller.  When  the  dogs  had  quieted,  and  we  felt 
that  the  launch  was  immovable,  we  crept  into  the 
box  cabin  and  gratefully  partook  of  hot  tea,  warmed 
pemmican,  and  biscuit,  with  cups  of  soup  to  "wash 
it  down."  It  was  a  parnassian  feast,  and  though 
we  were  anxious,  the  snug  refuge  and  the  soul- 
stimulating  grub  brought  us  to  the  verge  of  exulta- 
tion. Even  the  hard  knocks  that  the  pack 
received  attested  to  our  progress,  and  if  it  held 
together,  and  the  blizzard  lasted,  we  would  win  some 
miles  of  our  journey,  almost  without  effort,  and,  as 
Goritz  said,  "it  was  just  the  sort  of  a  blow  to  clear 
the  track." 

I  certainly  had  fallen  asleep.  Pictures  had  risen 
like  projections  on  a  screen,  one  after  the  other,  in 
my  mind,  one  melting  deliciously  into  its  prede- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  111 

cessors,  and  all  linked  together  by  the  memories  of 
home.  My  mother,  my  sister  and  her  two  boys 
under  the  pine  tree  by  the  side  of  the  dreaming 
pond,  holding  in  its  reflexions  the  cloud-flecked 
bosom  of  the  blue  sky,  and  the  slanting  cliff,  the 
hillside  graveyard,  and  the  reversed  boats  moored 
to  the  little  dock,  and  then  the  dash  of  the  phaeton 
down  the  road,  the  group  waving  their  kerchiefs  at 
me,  and  my  own  answering  salute,  the  turn  of  the 
road,  the  dark  passage  through  the  spruce  forest, 
the  cleared  farmsides  with  the  red  houses,  and  the 
clustering  friends  along  the  filled  fences,  cheering, 
and  then — a  terrific  bump — the  phaeton  had 
smashed  against  a  stone,  and — ! 

"Wake  up,  Erickson,  all  hands  busy." 

It  was  Goritz's  voice  bellowing  in  my  ear,  it  was 
his  hand,  shaking  me  like  a  giant  by  the  shoulder.  I 
leaped  to  my  feet,  dazed  and,  leaping  to  conclusions 
as  quickly,  thought  the  ice  had  split  our  keel  and  we 
were  sinking.  Everything  was  dark  around  me.  I 
heard  Hopkins  swearing  over  the  oil  lamps  which 
had  fallen  to  the  floor  and  the  Professor  mumbling 
further  away.  And  then  came  a  curiously  stifled 
boom. 

"Well,  what's  up?"  I  stuttered. 

"The  ice  cake  is  breaking  up.  There — it  goes 
again,"  groaned  Goritz. 

Another  report,  louder,  keener,  like  a  gun  shot, 
was  heard  above  the  babel  of  noises  that  the  wind, 
the  waters  now  and  the  straining  boat,  not  to  speak 
of  the  cargo  on  the  deck,  rustled  and  scraped 
throughout  its  many  joints  and  the  crevices  be- 
tween the  boxes,  promiscuously  raised.  There  was 
a  pause,  then  came  another  report  that  made  us  all 
jump  to  the  door;  it  seemed  almost  as  if  the  launch 
were  cracking  beneath  our  feet.  It  was  a  detona- 
tion directly  below  us.  Outside  the  wailing,  dem- 
oniacal storm  was  raging.     Our  cargo,  thanks  to  its 


112  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

unbreakable  anchorage  to  the  deck,  seemed  safe, 
but  on  all  sides  of  us  was  water,  laden  with  ice 
blocks  that  beat  trip-hammer  blows  against  the 
sides  of  the  launch.     OUR  DOGS  WERE  LOST! 

No,  not  all.  Ten  had  struggled  from  their  con- 
finement in  the  snow  and  had  taken  refuge  on  the 
boat.  The  rest,  swallowed  up  in  the  sundering  of 
the  raft,  had  perished  in  the  foaming  sea.  The 
boat  was  tossing,  and  the  waves  would  have 
swamped  us  had  not  the  watertight  door  of  the 
cabin  house  been  shut.  She  was  drifting  helplessly 
amid  the  ice-strewn  billows,  whose  retreating  slopes 
were  sheeted  white  with  a  lather  of  foam.  We  were 
holding  onto  anything  convenient,  and  were 
drenched,  but  finally  Goritz  and  Hopkins  found  their 
way  somehow  with  the  agility  and  tenacity  of  cats  to 
the  stern,  and  shipped  the  rudder,  and  in  a  few  mo- 
ments— they  seemed  hours — we  were  in  line  with 
the  wind,  and  racing  before  it,  lifted  and  shot  on- 
ward by  the  waves  that,  luckily  for  us,  were  not 
dangerously  crested,  but  were  peaked  hills  of  water, 
whose  ebullitions  were  somewhat  suppressed  by  the 
masses  of  ice  distributed  over  them.  We  seemed 
like  playthings,  and  like  playthings  the  giant  of  the 
deep  tossed  us  on,  thus  humorously  willing  to  aid  us 
to  our  destination  if  we  could  stand  the  treatment. 

The  storm  would  half  subside  and  then,  as  if 
maddened  at  its  clemency,  would  renew  its  violence. 
As  Hopkins  put  it,  "She  certainly  can  come  back 
good  and  hearty,  gets  her  second  wind  and  takes  a 
right  hook,  just  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  But 
after  all  it's  no  raw  deal.  We're  covering  ground 
fine,  and  not  turning  a  hair  to  pay  for  it,  provided 
we  can  hold  together.  The  insides  of  the  weather 
man  are  hard  to  fathom,  and  he  has  never  been 
credited  with  too  big  a  supply  of  the  milk  of  human 
kindness,  but  if  he  isn't  putting  it  over  us  hard  with 
a  goldbrick,  it  looks  to  me  as  if  we  might  soon 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  113 

expect  to  run  up  against  the  revenue  cutter  of  the 
Krocker  port.  I  suppose  we  can  declare  these 
goods  as  essential  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  and  beat  the  duty." 

It  grew  lighter  on  the  third  day,  and  the  awful 
tumult  lapsed  suddenly  into  a  peacefulness  amazing 
and  ideal.  The  temperature  rose  and  the  skies 
cleared,  the  sun  was  unclouded  and  intensely 
brilliant  for  these  latitudes,  and,  most  glorious  of 
all,  the  ocean  was  clear  of  ice,  only  the  green  rolling 
waves  sweeping  over  the  limitless  distances,  flatten- 
ing out  against  that  magic  circle  where  sky  and 
water  meet,  and  where  we  half  expected  to  see  the 
emergent  peaks  of  mountains. 

And  the  next  days  were  wonder  days.  The  air 
was  even  balmy;  the  sea,  cleared  of  its  litter  of  ice, 
invited  us  with  green  gleaming  undulations  to 
tempt  its  mercies  still  farther.  Our  engine  was 
started,  and  the  "Pluto,"  albeit  a  little  slowly, 
forged  on,  and  later,  aided  by  a  sail  that  drew  every 
wind  that  stirred,  advanced  over  the  ocean,  with 
even  a  flattering  pretence  to  speed;  her  safeness 
had  been  assumed  at  the  start. 

Except  for  the  destruction  of  our  dogs  whom  we 
had  already  begun  to  admire  and  to  cherish, 
nothing  seemed  wanting  for  our  perfect  peace  of 
mind  except  a  little  more  confidence  that  this 
unknown  world,  now  rapidly  approaching,  would 
offer  us  a  decent  foothold ;  that  it  would  not  be  an 
ice-buried  continent,  the  asylum  of  all  the  terrors 
of  the  north,  awful  in  its  solitude,  remorseless  in  its 
scorn,  brutal  in  its  revenge.  Well,  the  Professor 
undertook  to  calm  our  doubts,  and  while  he  exerted 
his  culinary  skill  in  the  infinite  variety  of  combina- 
tions of  soups,  canned  fruits,  preserves,  bread,  cake, 
biscuits,  candy,  pemmican,  wine,  custards,  pie  and 
macaroni,  he  expended  a  more  valuable  art  in  con- 
vincing us  that  we  were  indeed  to  discover  a  pleas- 


114  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

ant  country,  and  was  not  averse  to  beguiling  us  into 
raptures  over  his  fabulous  pictures  of  its  possibili- 
ties— "spinning  yarns"  and  "pipe  dreams,"  Hop- 
kins contemptuously  styled  them. 

"My  friends,"  said  the  Professor,  sprinkling 
dried  raisins  into  the  yellow  dough  which  would 
later  be  transformed  into  a  delectable  cake,  "this 
Krocker  Land  has  been  the  dream  of  ages. 
It  is  the  ancient  Eden,  and  it  is  preserved  to  us  in 
the  records  of  prehistoric  men  who  have  retained 
the  childhood  stories  of  still  more  ancient  peoples. 
Relatively  it  is  a  legend  because  no  one  has  seen  it. 
In  reality  it  will  establish  the  unity  of  tradition,  as 
it  ought,"  and  so  on  and  on,  with  some  new  notions 
of  the  oblateness  of  the  earth's  form,  and  the  fact 
that  at  the  north  we  were  some  thirteen  miles 
nearer  the  earth's  center,  and  then  some  more  about 
the  unequal  distribution  of  the  interior  fluid  masses 
of  rock,  and  the  great  probability  that  such  un- 
solidified  magmas,  radiating  great  heat,  might  occur 
in  the  boreal  regions  of  the  earth's  crust  to  produce 
local  warmth.  But  of  course  his  great  point  was 
the  depression  idea.    He  harped  incessantlyon  that. 

"It  looks  to  me,"  said  Hopkins  as  we  sat  round 
our  little  mess  table  in  the  cabin,  "that  if  the  going 
stays  good,  and  the  food  lasts,  we  surely  will  get 
there.  Holes  are,  however,  dangerous  things,  and 
Americans  don't  relish  getting  into  them  too  deep. 
The  grub  question  is  important.  We've  stacks  of 
it  just  now,  but  this  invincible  habit  of  eating  is 
getting  the  best  of  it,  and  starvation  is  a  most 
inglorious  death.  Do  you  think.  Professor,  that 
this  Krocker  Land  has  got  any  live  stock  on  it?" 

The  pained  expression,  of  having  been  wounded 
in  the  house  of  a  friend,  that  came  over  the  Pro- 
fessor's face,  as  he  wiped  his  mouth  and  reluctantly 
paused  in  his  consumption  of  a  ham  sandwich 
was  very  delightful. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  115 

"In  Krocker  Land,  Mr.  Hopkins"  this  ceremonial 
gravity  was  met  by  a  severe,  deferential  attention 
on  Hopkins'  part  that  was  perfect — "we  may  expect 
to  meet  a  concentrated  reflexion  of  the  palearctic 
and  the  neoarctic  faunas.  Along  the  coast  there 
will  be  whales,  walrus,  seal,  bear,  the  shores  will  be 
tenanted  by  the  eider  duck;  and  snipe,  geese, 
ducks,  ptarmigans,  plover,  will  be  found  inland, 
with  the  reindeer,  the  fox,  hare,  and  the  musk  ox, 
and — "  here  the  Professor  paused  with  a  delibera- 
tion intended  to  impress  us —  "and  I  should  not  be 
surprised  to  meet  with  the  American  bald  headed 
eagle." 

We  all  shouted,  and  the  Professor  hid  his  face 
and  his  satisfaction  in  his  sandwich.  But  Hopkins 
accepted  the  challenge  unflinchingly: 

"Good,  Professor.  If  the  American  eagle  is  up 
there,  it  certainly  is  God's  country,  and  a  white  man 
can  live  in  it!" 


CHAPTER  IV 
Krocker  Land  Rim 

On  the  fourth  day  came  another  change,  for  in 
these  haunts  of  the  snow  gods  and  the  ice  gods  the 
shadow  of  storm  darkens  quickly,  and  if  these 
deities  descend  to  earth  they  wrap  themselves 
thickly  in  shades  and  mists  and  white  trailing  togas, 
or  else  they  just  blow  upon  the  earth  their  coldest 
breath,  killing  all  human  life,  lest  they  be  seen  of 
men.  That  strange  Arctic  hush,  the  misty  light 
over  everything,  that  grayish  white  light  caused  by 
the  reflexion  from  the  ice  being  cast  high  into  the 
air  against  masses  of  vapor,  that  Nansen  has  des- 
cribed, encompassed  us.  A  mist,  a  fog,  rose  later, 
or  else  descended,  and  Goritz  said  we  were  near 
land,  in  which  I  concurred.  Our  excitement  was 
intense.  Was  the  great  revelation  to  be  vouch- 
safed ? 

The  fog  of  fogs  grew,  advancing  upon  us  from  the 
four  points  of  the  compass,  rising  around  us  from 
the  water  like  spectres,  descending  from  the  skies  in 
soft,  insensible  folds,  buried  in  the  thickening 
nebula,  until,  we  could  hardly  see  an  arm's  length  in 
front  of  the  boat.  Then  a  chill  came  with  it,  light 
breezes  from  the  northwest  ("From  land,"  said 
Goritz)  and  then  as  if  some  resistance  from  the  east 
was  roused  into  action,  another  tempest  gathered 
there,  rushing  ravenously  upon  us  with  a  blind 
rage,  with  wrack  and  cloud,  with  rain  and  snow, 

116 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  117 

the  last  interference  of  the  elements  to  destroy  us, 
before  the  secret  of  the  north  was  revealed — a 
senseless  protest,  for  their  madness  only  flung  us 
swiftly  forward  to  the  forbidden  coasts. 

The  "Pluto"  plunged  and  rolled;  her  rounded, 
swollen  bottom  made  her  an  easy  prey  to  the  bal- 
loting waves,  and  unless  she  could  be  kept  in  the 
wind  her  overturn  seemed  certain  with  ourselves 
spilled  into  the  distracted  waters.  It  was  hard 
to  do  this,  hard  to  stick  to  her  deck  at  all,  when 
every  now  and  then  some  vicious  poke  sent 
her  across,  and  we  would  cling  like  barnacles  to 
rope  or  rail  or  stanchion.  The  tiller  was  jerked 
from  Goritz's  hand  and  its  arm  dealt  him  a  blow 
that  almost  disabled  him.  I  was  pitched  headlong 
on  the  forward  deck  and  narrowly  escaped  rolling 
overboard ;  some  of  the  cargo  aboveships  slipped  its 
fastenings  and  was  lost,  threatening  the  dislocation 
of  everything.  This  danger  was  too  serious,  and 
Hopkins  and  I  did  our  best  to  avert  it,  but  do  what 
we  could  or  might,  the  load  was  crumbling  away 
before  our  eyes,  loosened  from  its  fastenings  by  the 
fierce  storm.  Box  after  box  disappeared  in  the 
gloom.  The  dogs  were  hustled  into  the  cabin, 
whence  their  howls  and  terrified  whines  issued  like 
the  cries  of  lost  souls.  We  were  now  pretty  well 
alarmed,  and  our  predicament  strongly  resembled 
the  prelude  to  complete  annihilation. 

Suddenly  the  Professor  shouted,  "The  ice — the 
ice  again!"  and  the  next  instant  we  were  pinned 
in  a  pack  of  formidable  blocks  that  thundered 
around  us,  lodged  on  our  deck,  and  beat  into  ruins, 
as  the  waves  lurched  or  hurled  them  over  us,  the 
frail  battlement  of  boxes  which  contained  our 
supplies.  My  heart  sank  within  me.  EVERY- 
THING GONE!  Not  quite.  There  was  some- 
thing left  in  the  cabin,  but  on  that  raging  waste  of 
waters — ?     The  question  stuck  in  my  throat.     In 


118  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

that  instant  I  seemed  separated,  sundered  from  all 
the  others,  the  concentrated  agony  of  my  terror — 
for  terror  black  and  paralyzing  it  was — robbed  me 
almost  of  consciousness.  Almost  as  in  a  trance  I 
heard  Hopkins  cry,  "Look!    Look!" 

Something  happened.  Actually  it  was  a 
meteorological  phenomenon  brought  about  by  the 
proximity  of  mountain  masses  perhaps;  to  my 
mind  it  seemed  like  the  visible  extension  of  the 
hand  of  God  to  pluck  us  from  destruction.  Above 
us  appeared  a  bright  spot  that  was  widening 
rapidly;  the  motion  within  it  was  apparent,  and 
the  velocity  of  the  atmospheric  rotations  within  it 
must  have  been  almost  incalculable.  It  was  be- 
coming a  monstrous  orifice  into  which  poured  the 
abominable  chaos  that  was  overwhelming  us;  its 
enormous  vortex  swallowed  up  the  storm,  trans- 
ferred in  its  outrageous  coursing  from  earth  to 
heaven.  The  deity  of  Krocker  Land  favored  our 
approach.  He  had  rebuked,  repelled,  dissipated 
the  tempest. 

The  scenic  shock  was  really  tremendous.  The 
dramatic  intensity  of  the  change,  the  startling 
evolution  from  storm  and  darkness,  blistering 
winds,  soaked  with  snow  and  rain,  the  earth- 
driven  rolling  clouds,  black  and  gray,  tossed  over 
us  and  engulfing  us  in  blankets  of  cold  wetness  that 
sent  shivering  thrills  of  dread  through  our  bodies, 
as  the  waves  mounted  and  pounced  on  us  like 
beasts  of  ravin!  And  then  this  magnificent  uplift! 
Oh,  the  calm,  superhuman  glory  of  it!  The  shat- 
tered debris  of  the  broken  tornado  vanishing  above 
us,  and — as  its  myriad  shaped  or  distorted  cur- 
tains rose — the  sunlit  dark  mountain  peaks,  the 
bare  rocky  crags,  jeweled  with  snow,  the  ice  strewn 
beaches  of  Krocker  Land,  evolving  superbly  before 
our  eyes,  as  if  created  then,  at  that  very  moment, 
by    the    transfiguring    finger    of    the    Almighty. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  119 

Mr  Link,  it  was  the  most  sublime  spectacle  imagin- 
able; for  me  it  was  the  dimax  of  my  life.  I  shL"l 
never  forget  its  wonder,  its  power  its  amazing 
enforcement  of  the  idea  of  creation.  ^"^azmg 

1  don't  think  there  was  much  difference  between 

sity  appalled  us  in  a  way,  and  then  it  thrilled  us 
Temperamental  details  were  submerged  in  the  ove': 

ftT'^n^  'v'"'^°"-  >^  ^'''  P^^haps  we  thought 
t  an  apparition,  a  mirage.  It  was  unreal.  And 
then  when  the  realization  was  acknowledged  to 
put  It  bluntly,  we  gazed  in  stupid  astonrshm^nt 
We  were  about  four  miles  away ;  when  the  -Wsion 
broke,  standing  on  our  deck,  irom  wh  ch  ev^y 

ruth\lt  ^^  Z'  '"SP'^^^  ^^^  b^^"  ^^^"^d  off  by  the 
ruthless  wind  and  water.  I  believe  we  stood  that 
way  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  before  we  quUe  came 

us  hZT"'''  "^''u  '^'  ^^^^^  ^"^  ^^"d  still  drivW 
us  headlong  on  that  apocryphal  beach.  Then  wl 
began  to  take  notice  and  to  take  precautions! 

ice  and  th'rrK-P^'''^"^  encumbered  with  shore 
ice   and  the  lashing  waves  were  throwing  upon  it 

row"'  """/^^  i""?  >^^^  fragments.  The  foas^t  was 
low  sandy  shelving,  cut  up  by  a  few  projecting  ^nd 
sand  buried  ridges  of  rock,  which,  like  spurs  pLsed 
back  into  the  interior,  and  may  have  been    h^e  out 

b'ehindthTm  ^^^^^  ^---^  -nges  beyond  and 
Demnd  them.     Goritz  managed  to  direct  the  launch 

"?T  ^  u^\  ^^P^"^^  °f  sa^d  on  which  we  landed 
with  a  thud  that  made  the  timbers  creak      I  tWnl 
the  Professor  was  the  first  to  leap  ashore    then 
Hopkins  and  myself,  and  at  the  last  GorTtz    wi?h 
the  painter.     The  next  wave  drove  the  boat  firTher 
up   the   beach.     Nothing   now   could    budge   her 
Somehow  we  looked  then  to  Goritz  for  orders 
of  stoc?'  ^^^.ff^y^hing  out,  and  take  an  account 
01  stock.     This  IS  good  enough  camping  ground 
until   we  get  our   bearings  and   perhap!  I  S 


120  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

better  hold  on  our  wits.  I  hope  the  Professor's 
faunas  are  expecting  us." 

This  obHque  hint  to  the  loss  of  our  provisions 
dampened  any  ardor  we  might  have  succumbed  to, 
in  our  enthusiasm  over  the  discovery.  We  set  to 
work  with  a  will,  and  almost  without  a  word. 
There  were  some  welcome  surprises.  The  dogs 
were  safe,  sound  asleep  in  the  cabin,  exhausted  by 
their  fright.  They  became  a  solicitude,  however, 
because  of  the  additional  mouths  to  fill,  though,  in 
a  state  of  idleness,  half  rations  would  keep  them 
well.  But  would  we  need  them?  Our  ammuni- 
tion and  guns  were  safe,  our  oil  and  stove,  alcohol, 
medical  outfit,  and  six  boxes  of  canned  vegetables, 
pemmican,  biscuit,  tea,  coffee,  chocolate,  in  all 
perhaps  three  hundred  pounds;  and  our  spare 
clothing,  for  which  we  ofi"ered  fervent  thanks.  One 
sledge  was  saved  from  the  wreck,  and  one  bruised 
and  broken  kayak.  The  portable  tent  was  un- 
injured, and  there  remained  a  serviceable  equip- 
ment of  cans  and  pots,  though  for  that  matter  one 
can  for  the  preparation  of  our  tea  and  coffee  or 
chocolate,  and  one  pot  for  miscellaneous  stews, 
soups,  and  what  Hopkins  called  ''hari-kari,'"  were 
all  we  needed.  The  watertight  cabin  had  saved 
much. 

When  the  review  was  finished,  and  we  felt 
cheered  over  the  immediate  prospect,  we  drew  up 
the  "Pluto"  on  the  beach,  anchored  her,  as  well  as 
we  could,  and  converted  her  into  our  camp.  We 
were  clamorously  hungry  and  the  dogs  were  raging. 
The  Professor  wasted  no  time,  though  just  now  the 
allowances  were  rigorously  measured.  It  might  be 
better  when  we  caught  sight  of  the  Professor's 
"concentrated  reflexion  of  the  palearctic  and  neo- 
arctic  faunas."  At  the  moment  a  sublime  solitude 
surrounded  us.  Yet  I  had  noticed  high  up  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  rock  and  in  the  slight  subsidences 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  121 

that  like  saucers  lay  at  their  bases,  the  growth  of 
plants,  and  the  quick  eye  of  the  Professor  had  noted 
it  too.  Surely  that  meant  game.  I  guess  we  both 
understood  that,  for  the  Professor  worked  over  his 
fires  and  vessels  with  a  boyish  profusion  of  activity, 
and  was  inclined  to  be  lavish  in  his  ingredients 
(Goritz,  watchful  and  prudent,  stopped  him), 
while  something  like  elation  sprang  up  within  me 
and  an  utterly  inappropriate  yearning  to  sing  and 
laugh  and  dance. 

I  remembered  Mikkelsen's  and  Iversen's  joy 
when  they  descended  from  the  cold  monotony  and 
whiteness  and  treachery  of  the  inland  ice  of  Green- 
land to  the  habitable  earth  with  its  flowers,  and  life, 
and  warmth.  With  Mikkelsen  too  vegetation  had 
meant  animal  life.  They  seemed  inseparable  corre- 
lates. In  Greenland  it  had  been  pigmy  willow 
trees,  six  inches  high,  with  trunks  an  inch  thick,  and 
blades  of  grass,  and  thick  moss,  and  beautiful 
heather,  and  then — musk  ox! 

What  it  was  here  would  be  disclosed  as  soon  as 
the  evening  meal  was  finished.  We  had  all  been 
curiously  dumb  since  we  had  been  thrown  ashore, 
that  is,  there  had  been  no  reference  made  to  our 
wonderful  landfall.  Perhaps  we  were  speechless 
from  sheer  amazement,  or  some  haunting  dread 
that  our  return  was  impossible,  or  that  we  were  on 
the  margin,  as  it  were,  of  bigger  marvels.  I  think 
the  latter  feeling  made  us  almost  mute.  Our 
fancies  before  we  left  Point  Barrow  had  been  high- 
strung  and  the  visions  wrought  in  our  minds  were 
almost  mystical — I  have  explained  that — but  these 
had  very  completely  vanished  during  the  last  days 
of  turmoil  and  disaster,  when  the  wonders  we  ex- 
pected to  encounter  were  more  likely  to  have  been 
found  in  another  world  than  in  this  one.  Yet  you 
see  they  really  had  not  vanished,  they  had  shrunk 
somewhat,     retreating    into    invisibility     in     the 


122  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

crevices  and  holes  of  the  mind,  and  now  when  the 
stupendous  reaHty  confronted  us  they  rushed  out 
from  hiding,  huger  than  ever,  smothering  us  into 
silence  with  their  immensity!  A  new  World,  what 
might  not  be  in  it?  It  was  Hopkins  who  broke  the 
trance  that  imprisoned  us. 

"That  transformation  took  the  gilt  off  any  light- 
ning-change stunt  I  ever  have  seen  and —  Of  course, 
Professor,  there  isn't  any  guess  coming  that  we've 
ARRIVED,  that  this  is  Krocker  Land?"  he  said 
suddenly. 

"Not  the  slightest,"  answered  the  Professor, 
filling  our  cups  with  chocolate,  and  in  a  matter  of 
fact  way  that  was  final. 

"We  have  absolutely  reached  a  New  Continent. 
Everything  confirms  that:  Latitude,  longitude, 
direction  from  Point  Barrow,  and  the  topography. 
It  isn't  Wrangel  or  Herschel  or  Harold  or  Bennett, 
or  any  part  of  the  Franz  Josef  Archipelago.  That 
splendid  fringe  of  peaks  hides  inner  valleys  that 
decline  into  a  central  area  of  warmth,  light  and 
Life!" 

I  really  think  that  we  believed  him.  The 
glorious  extravagance  of  the  prediction,  its  superb 
audacity,  its  anomalous  improbability  subjugated 
us  totally,  because  our  startled  expectations  would 
be  satisfied  with  little  else.  That  was  the  psy- 
chology of  it.  And  Mr.  Link,  the  Professor  was 
right.     LISTEN! 

Our  position  was  on  a  flat,  shelving  coast,  slowly 
rising  to  foothills,  beyond  which  gaunt  bare  preci- 
pices towered  apparently  to  uplands,  from  which 
soared  the  sharp  serrations  of  a  continuous  Cordil- 
lera. It  made  a  noble  picture.  Snow  covered  the 
higher  elevations,  it  lay  in  drifts  in  the  lower  chasms, 
it  formed  a  light  covering  on  the  tableland  but 
failed  to  approach  nearer  to  the  shore,  which  was  a 
series  of  sand  or  rubble  flats,  embedding  low  backs. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  123 

pointed  mounds,  and  dikes  of  diabase.  Only  at 
one  point  was  a  glacier  visible.  To  the  north,  al- 
most at  the  limit  of  vision  we  could  see  the  glitter- 
ing ribbon  high  up  in  the  mountains.  The  days 
were  shortening,  and  although  the  sun  remained 
for  most  of  the  time  above  the  horizon,  nightfall 
was  marked  by  its  declination,  when  a  peculiar 
tawny  golden  glow  filled  the  air.  The  mountains 
were  striped  with  light  and  shade,  half  roseate, 
half  black  as  ink;  the  highlands  were  also  in  gloom, 
and  between  both  the  foothills  made  a  beaded 
girdle  of  whiteness  like  a  necklace  of  gigantic 
pearls  on  the  dusky  neck  of  an  Ethiopian. 

There  was  no  question  of  turning  back.  An 
unappeasable  hunger  for  discovery  filled  us.  What 
lay  beyond  those  pearly  pinnacles?  WHAT? 
Our  plans  were  quickly  laid.  There  was  call  for 
expedition,  for  the  Arctic  night  was  coming,  and 
while  sincerely,  with  three  of  us,  some  inexplicable 
provision  seemed  imminent  for  its  replacement, 
Antoine  Goritz  resisted  our  madness  at  that  point, 
and  told  us  that  if  this  was  a  dead  world,  nothing 
but  the  dogs  would  save  us  from  death;  our 
retreat  would  have  to  be  over  the  frozen  polar  sea. 

The  first  step  was  to  find  game:  Seal,  walrus, 
bear,  ox,  hare,  anything.  W^e  divided  into  two 
skirmishing  parties,  Hopkins  and  I  going  to  the 
right,  Goritz  and  the  Professor  to  the  left.  The 
dogs  were  tethered,  and  fastened  to  the  launch. 
The  Professor  and  myself  had  already  collected 
some  of  the  plants.  How  radiant  and  beautiful 
they  seemed  in  that  still  untrodden  asylum,  the 
little  green-leaved  willows,  a  saxifrage,  the  yellow 
mountain  poppy  of  Siberia  (Papaver  nudicaule), 
forget-me-nots,  cloud  berry,  and  in  the  boggy 
hollows  cottongrass,  spreading  its  wavy  down 
carpet,  while  here  and  there  tiny  forests  of  bluebells 
swung  their  campanulate  corollas!    The  cold  pure 


124  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

waters  of  the  snows  fed  these  alpine  gardens,  and 
we  even  detected  the  hum  of  insects  amid  the  vari- 
egated patches  of  deHcious  bloom.  Game?  "Well 
I  should  smile,"  shouted  Hopkins. 

Hopkins  and  I,  in  splendid  spirits,  made  our  way 
to  the  upland,  a  distance  of  some  five  miles,  and 
then  through  the  snow,  watching  the  slopes  of  the 
foothills  that  made  ideal  pasturages  for  the  musk 
ox,  if  these  "artiodactyls,"  as  the  Professor  rather 
pompously  spoke  of  them,  were  here  at  all.  We 
had  not  gone  far  when  up  a  ravine,  where  narrow 
meadows  and  boulder  strewn  intervals  conducted, 
between  two  steep  hills,  a  cascading  stream,  break- 
ing from  the  craggy  cliffs  beyond,  Hopkins  espied 
a  little  herd  of  four  cows,  two  calves,  and  a  bull. 
Were  they  musk  oxen?  The  horns  looked  different. 

Hopkins  skipped  in  glee,  and,  with  his  usual 
recourse  to  verse  (preferably  Lewis  Carroll's),  he 
hoarsely  whispered : 

"  'What's  this?  I  pondered.     Have  I  slept 
Or  can  I  have  been  drinking? 
But  soon  a  gentler  feeling  crept 
Upon  me,  and  I  sat  and  wept 
An  hour  or  so  like  winking.' 

"Erickson,  my  pop  first.  I'll  forego  the  tears. 
Stalk  them  up  to  windward." 

The  animals  had  not  noticed  our  vicinity,  al- 
though grazing  and  leisurely  approaching  us.  We 
finally  squatted  behind  a  rock,  and  just  a  half  hour 
later,  as  they  reached  the  edge  of  the  mimic  field  we 
fired.  Hopkins  stretched  out  the  bull;  it  sank 
majestically  to  its  knees,  its  head  drooped,  some- 
thing like  a  groan  escaped  its  throat,  and  it  fell 
sideways.  I  was  not  so  fortunate,  nor  skillful.  I 
wounded  one  of  the  cows,  but  there  was  no  attempt 
at  escape.  The  herd  pressed  together,  stamping  a 
little  but  almost  motionless,  as  if  paralyzed  with 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  125 

terror,  or  robbed  of  volition  by  curiosity.  Hopkins 
let  fly  again  and  my  wounded  cow  glided  to  the 
ground.  My  second  shot  was  fatal,  and  another 
helpless  brute  succumbed.  Then  as  if  stricken  with 
a  sudden  consciousness  of  their  danger,  the 
rest  of  the  herd  trotted  off,  spared  further  deci- 
mation. Our  larder  would  be  well  replenished, 
and  we  both  knew  now,  with  an  unshaken  convic- 
tion, that  we  were  in  a  land  of  plenty. 

"We  should  worry!"  sniffed  Hopkins  senten- 
tiously.  When  we  reached  our  quarry  I  was 
amazed  to  note  the  peculiar  narrowness  and  ele- 
vation of  the  horns  of  the  bull,  and  the  dirty  gray 
maculations  on  the  black  hair  of  the  pelage. 

"A  new  species,  Spruce,"  I  exclaimed. 

"Well  then,"  he  replied,  "here's  where  the  Pro- 
fessor rings  up  the  curtain  on  the  textbooks,  and — 
Say  Alfred! — as  I  had  first  blood,  and  bagged  the 
bull,  why  not  hand  it  out  as  Bos  hopkinsi?'' 

"By  all  means,"  I  assented.  When  we  got  back, 
and  we  did  not  return  empty  handed  we  found 
Goritz  and  the  Professor.  They  looked  a  little 
dispirited  but  our  report  put  such  a  pleasant  aspect 
on  things  that  they  quickly  recovered.  They  had 
found  nothing,  but  that  was  due  to  the  pertinacity 
of  the  Professor  in  carrying  Goritz  ofif  on  a  tour  of 
investigation.  They  had  crossed  the  tableland  and 
had  threaded  their  way  half  across  the  foothills, 
until  they  met  the  frowning  crags  skirting  the  moun- 
tain terrain.  These  were  seamed  with  waterfalls 
pouring  into  some  encircling  canon  below  them, 
which  again  formed  a  channel  for  the  escape  of  the 
gathered  floods,  but  whither  they  went  was  unde- 
termined. It  was  evident  that  the  water  of  the 
streams  came  from  the  melting  snowbanks  lingering 
higher  up  on  the  mountains,  and  that  the  region 
was  one  of  very  heavy  precipitation. 

Goritz  insisted  on   bringing  in   the  meat,   and 


126  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

indeed  our  mouths  watered  for  a  juicy  steak.  The 
dogs  were  fed,  and  these  insatiable  beasts  raven- 
ously devoured  the  pieces  we  threw  to  them,  until 
Goritz,  fearing  their  consequent  lethargy,  drove 
them  off  half  frantic,  harnessed  them,  and  accom- 
panied by  me  took  the  sledge  to  our  depot;  re- 
turned with  the  carcasses  and  skins  and  ushered  in 
a  memorable  night,  lit  by  the  futile  rivalry  of  sun 
and  moon. 

There  was  first  our  supper  when  the  Captain 
permitted  a  relaxation  of  his  restriction,  and  the 
Professor  plunged  into  the  resources  of  our  slender 
commissariat  with  a  most  reprehensible  abandon. 
I  believe  we  washed  down  our  steak  with  Eulentha- 
ler,  a  few  bottles  of  which  had  still  survived  our 
perils.  Then  there  was  the  Professor's  ecstacy 
over  the  new  species  of  Bos,  for  such  it  was,  and  his 
delighted  acceptance  of  Hopkins'  patronymic  for 
its  technical  name.  And  then — our  Council  of 
War;  war  on  the  Unknown,  the  Mysteries  of  this 
new  land,  the  perils  before  us,  and  those  that  might 
await  us  beyond  those  slumbering  virginal  crests, 
from  whose  pinnacles  even  now  the  clustering  genii 
of  the  realm  watched  our  intrusion  with  scorn  and 
hatred! 

Our  debate  was  a  little  disputatious.  Goritz  was 
quite  immovably  for  returning  that  winter,  execu- 
ting as  much  of  a  littoral  survey  as  we  could,  to 
return  another  season  with  an  equipped  expedition, 
trusting  to  get  back  to  Barrow,  with  the  dogs, 
sledge,  kayak  and  launch,  and  with  meat  stores 
from  the  Bos  hopkinsi.  The  Professor  vehemently 
and  feverishly  protested.  Here  we  were  on  the 
brink  of  world-convulsing  wonders.  To  decline 
the  invitation  so  miraculously  extended  to  us  was 
fiying  in  the  face  of  all  recorded  traditions  of  ex- 
ploration. It  was  an  ignominious  flight  from  insig- 
nificant dangers.     He  knew  that  beyond  that  por- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  127 

tentous  circle  of  peaks  lay  an  inverted  cone  holding 
within  it  warmth  and  civilization. 

I  think  Goritz  felt  the  appeal,  but  he  was  saga- 
cious, a  prudent  man,  and  had  no  vainglorious 
desire  to  appropriate  the  forthcoming  discoveries, 
which  the  Professor  gloated  over,  for  himself.  He 
shook  his  head  energetically.  Then  Spruce  Hop- 
kins, who  with  myself  had  only  interjected  ques- 
tions and  inquiring  comments,  and  who  with  me 
was  fascinated  by  the  Professor's  predictions  and 
promises,  suggested  a  compromise. 

"My  friends,  I'm  sort  o'  on  the  outside  of  this 
argument,  though  I  guess  my  skin  will  get  as  much 
punishment,  either  way,  as  any  one  of  you.  Can't 
you  come  to  terms  on  this  easy  ground?  Get  up 
there,"  and  he  waved  his  hand  towards  the  serene 
splendid  domes  in  their  terrible  beauty  far  above  us, 
"and  if  the  land  goes  down,  as  we  might  say  hole- 
wise,  we'll  stick,  but  if  it  goes  straight,  level,  or  up, 
why  we'll  beat  it  home  again.  That's  sense  Goritz, 
and  I  guess.  Professor,  it's  philosophy  too." 

This  jocularity  relieved  the  tension  superbly,  and 
whether  Goritz  and  the  Professor  were  quite  clear 
as  to  how  the  provision  should  be  interpreted, 
Goritz  consented  to  make  the  attempt  to  reach  "the 
rim,"  as  the  Professor  called  it. 

The  next  days  were  days  of  anxious  preparation. 
It  was  no  child's  play  scaling  that  natural  fortress, 
and  within  its  labyrinth  of  parapets,  bastions, 
moats,  and  demi-lunes,  ramparts  and  ditches  what 
unforeseen  dangers  lurked!  Our  chief  concern  was 
our  stores;  the  inroads  made  upon  them  by  the 
storm  was  serious,  and  the  inconvenience  of  starv- 
ing on  the  "rim,"  in  sight  of  the  promised  land  was 
disturbing.  Our  campaign  would  consist  of  mak- 
ing caches  of  meat  on  the  uplands,  taking  our  con- 
densed food,  tea  and  cofifee  on  our  backs,  making 
forced  marches  to  the  summit,  reconnoitering  and 


128  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

plunging  on  ahead,  if  unanimous  in  that,  or  else 
tumbling  back,  and  setting  our  faces  homeward. 
Homeward — the  word  seemed  a  mockery  in  that 
strange  and  hidden  corner  of  the  earth. 

Another  thing  happened,  though  not  quite 
unexpected.  The  wind  had  shifted  to  the  west, 
bringing  loose  drifting  ice  and  some  hulking  floe- 
bergs,  and  the  squally  twists,  the  livid  streaks  in 
the  sky,  and  the  sun's  sepulchral  palor  had  indi- 
cated some  rising  uneasiness  skyward.  The  change 
came  good  and  plenty  later.  The  wind  rose  almost 
to  a  tornado,  though  there  was  no  snow  or  rain,  just 
a  bitter  cold  searching  wind.  It  smote  the  moun- 
tains. We  could  see  the  sky-rocketing  volley  of 
snow  on  their  sides,  and  noted  too  that  towards 
their  tops  there  was  no  disturbance,  indicating  a 
a  semi-icy  condition  of  the  snow  there,  perhaps 
better,  perhaps  worse  for  going.  And  now  in  the 
turning  of  a  hand  the  crowding  ice  packs  were  back. 
As  far  as  we  could  see  their  humps  and  fields  spread 
everlastingly,  and  the  chorus  of  groans,  wheezes, 
and  queer  hushing  sounds  that  they  all  sent  up  was 
astonishing. 

Hopkins  shot  a  bear,  before  the  storm  attained 
its  top-notch  of  fury,  which  brought  much  cheerful- 
ness to  the  camp.  I  never  shall  forget  it.  It  was 
funny  too;  it  might  have  been  just  as  tragic.  He 
and  I  were  off  to  the  west,  reconnoitering  for  a 
possible  easier  entrance  to  the  "rim,"  when  Hopkins 
caught  my  arm  nervously,  and  pointed  out  over  the 
groaning  packs,  and  said  he  saw  something  moving. 
I  could  not  see  it.  We  ventured  out  a  little  way  on 
some  near  shore  ice  and  were  behind  a  slight  pres- 
sure ridge,  when  a  shockingly  coarse  growl  issued 
from  the  other  side  and  a  moment  later  a  big  polar 
bear  surmounted  the  pile,  and  laying  both  its  front 
paws  on  the  blocks,  over  which  its  face  rose,  most 
whimsically  recalled  the  emergence  of  a  preacher  in 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  129 

high  pulpit.  We  were  pretty  well  taken  aback,  but 
Hopkins  slipped  off  his  usual  doggerel,  sotto  voce 
however — while  the  bear  watched  us  critically — 

"My  only  son  was  big  and  fine 

And  I  was  proud  that  he  was  mine, 

He  looked  through  eyes  that  were  divine — 

Indeed  he  was  a  BEAR." 

And  then  he  raised  his  rifle  and — Bruin  wasn't 
there.  We  jumped  up  on  the  ridge,  clambered  to 
the  top  and  almost  fell  into  his  ursine  majesty's 
arms.  He  had  ducked  down  on  seeing  the  rifle  but 
hadn't  budged  from  his  position.  It  looked  as  if  he 
had  met  hunters  before.  Hopkins  blazed  away,  and 
I  followed.  The  splendid  beast  gurgled  and  fell 
backward  dead. 

We  had  reached  the  foothills,  crossed  the 
uplands,  made  our  caches  of  meat,  stuffed  the  dogs 
and  turned  them  loose — Goritz  called  it  "burning 
our  ships  behind  us" — and  were  creeping  along  the 
edge  of  the  narrow  deep  chasm  or  canon  which 
caught  the  waters  from  the  cliffs,  gathering  them  in 
an  awful,  tempestuous,  writhing  torrent,  that 
became  almost  maniacal  in  its  agony  where  hidden 
rocks  stopped  its  course,  or  where  it  dropped  into 
black  abysses.  We  must  cross  that  chasm,  climb 
the  cliffs,  before  we  could  begin  the  ascent  of  the 
mountains.  The  chasm  was  twenty  or  thirty  feet 
wide,  the  cliffs  rose  above  it,  from  our  level,  about 
one  hundred  feet,  and  below  us  they  descended  to  the 
water  trough,  one  hundred  feet  more.  The  prob- 
lem was  to  reach  the  bottom  of  the  chasm,  bridge 
the  raging  brace,  and  then  work  up  the  clifTs.  It 
looked  like  a  fly's  job.  And  what  disclosures  the 
roofs  of  the  cliffs  and  the  mountains  beyond  had  we 
could  only  guess.  These  difficulties  had  been 
anticipated,  in  one  way;  we  had  strong  wire  rope,  a 
flexible  cable  made  of  copper  wire  and  skin. 


130  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Crawling  on  hands  and  knees  we  were  studying 
the  sides  of  the  chasm,  and  not  infrequently  Goritz 
would  suspend  himself,  held  by  the  rest  of  us,  over 
the  frightful  gulf,  to  determine  where  we  might 
safely  enter  this  inferno,  with  a  prospect  of  span- 
ning the  seething,  spouting,  vociferous  river,  and  of 
scaling  the  black  and  jagged  wall  on  the  other  side. 
Our  search  was  unavailing.  We  had  explored  the 
bank  for  more  than  a  mile.  The  delay  was  mad- 
dening. Suddenly  the  Professor,  who  had  been 
silent,  and  had  been  studying  the  black  and  red 
walls  opposite,  with  occasional  long  examinations 
eastward  with  the  glass,  exclaimed : 

"We  are  making  a  mistake.  Our  course  is  up 
and  to  the  back  of  the  glacier.  These  clififs  are 
sedimentary;  they  lie  on  the  eruptive  crystallines 
of  the  mountains;  the  river  runs  west;  the  glacier 
has  dammed  its  course  eastward,  where  it  should 
flow,  following  the  dip  of  the  slates  and  sandstones. 
It  cuts  the  dip,  and  the  glacier  has  crossed  its  path 
and  filled  up  this  singular  crevice,  which  is  a  fault 
rift." 

He  looked  triumphant ;  Goritz  seized  the  sugges- 
tion. 

"That's  right,"  he  shouted,  "up  the  glacier  and 
then — we  can  use  the  dogs!" 

We  were  soon  back  to  the  abandoned  sledge; 
some  of  the  dogs  had  followed  us,  the  rest  were 
sleeping  off  their  debauch  of  raw  bear's  meat.  We 
loaded  the  sledge  with  meat,  from  one  of  our  caches, 
leaving  the  other  intact,  and  with  awakened  hope 
started  at  a  lively  pace  over  the  snow  covered  up- 
lands for  the  distant  ice-river.  The  going  was  not 
good  for  the  snow  had  drifted  somewhat,  and  was 
soft  and  mushy,  but  the  dogs  were  in  excellent  con- 
dition, and  they  really  seemed  to  understand  that 
they  had  escaped  desertion. 

In  three  hours  the  glacier  was  reached.     It  was 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  131 

a  more  significant  feature  than  we  had  supposed. 
Where  it  emerged  from  the  mountain  hollow  it  was 
almost  obliterated  from  view  by  an  immense 
morainal  accumulation  which  had  choked  up  the 
river,  as  the  Professor  guessed,  forming  a  small  lake, 
fed  also,  we  discovered,  by  the  underground  waters 
flowing  from  the  glacier  itself.  Over  this  moraine 
we  made  our  way  in  a  helter  skelter  manner  because 
of  its  unevenness,  the  scattered  rocks  bulging  up 
and  intercepting  our  path  with  a  perverse  frequency 
that  drove  Hopkins  to  improvisation: 

"If  I  had  a  little  dynamite 

To  put  these  pebbles  out  of  sight, 

I  think  I'd  skip  from  pure  delight 

And  say  my  prayers  with  all  my  might 

As  well  I  know  is  surely  right. 

But  as  it  is  they  make  me  cuss 

And  put  my  temper  in  a  fuss. 

So  if  perdition  is  my  share, 

I  owe  it  to  this  rocky  lair." 

There  was  plenty  of  snow  in  places  where  the  sun 
had  as  yet  failed  to  evict  it,  but  everywhere  melting 
and  warmth  were  encountered.  The  summer  was 
reigning,  and  the  verdurous  garb  of  green  and 
colored  things  was  drawn  like  a  veil  over  the  rugged 
grounds,  soothing  them  into  a  transient  loveliness. 
We  could  see  the  rivulets  from  the  snowbanks 
coursing  everywhere,  and  could  hear  from  the 
glacier  the  gurgle,  rush,  and  tinkle  too  of  hidden 
rivers,  while  towards  the  coast,  in  the  daytime,  the 
sun  revealed  a  shield  of  wide  spread  waters  where 
the  floods  from  the  melting  ice  poured  over  the 
shore,  and  cut  long,  wide  lanes  in  the  rapidly 
vanishing  shore  ice. 

When  we  had  struggled  to  the  glacier  wall  we 
found  it  an  almost  imperceptible  rise  to  its  surface, 
and  once  there,  our  faces  turned  toward  the  ice- 


132  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

river  to  gauge  its  character.  It  was  badly  cre- 
vassed,  and  although  the  snow  sheeting  it  over  had 
been  heavy,  much  had  disappeared.  Along  the 
sides  where  the  lateral  moraine  somewhat  shielded 
it  the  snow  still  remained,  but  the  depressions  tra- 
versing it,  sometimes  in  herringbone  fashion, 
showed  the  position  of  the  masked  depths,  in  whose 
icy  jaws  our  whole  party,  sledge  and  dogs  might 
readily  be  entombed. 

Goritz  went  first  with  the  dog  leader,  then  came 
myself  at  the  head  of  the  team,  with  Hopkins  and 
the  Professor  on  either  side  of  the  forebraces  of  the 
sledge.  We  were  roped  together,  and  the  sledge — 
the  only  survivor  of  its  kind  from  the  storm — was 
heavily  loaded.  We  each  carried  about  twenty 
pounds  of  condensed  food,  ingeniously  harnessed 
on  our  backs.  It  was  an  inconsiderable  load  and 
might  prove  serviceable  if  the  sledge  vanished. 

At  first  we  advanced  gingerly,  bridging  crevasse 
after  crevasse,  but  our  confidence  increased  as  the 
snow  flooring,  although  yielding,  repeatedly  proved 
itself  adequate  for  our  support.  At  one  point  the 
sledge  smashed  the  weakened  crust  and  threatened 
to  drag  the  dogs  backward  with  it,  as  it  hung  almost 
vertically  into  a  wide  slit,  forty  or  fifty  feet  deep, 
wherein  the  ice,  to  our  eyes,  was  an  aquamarine 
mass  of  jewels.  Hopkins  lashed  the  dogs  and  they 
hauled  the  sledge  back  again  on  the  snow. 

We  had  reached  a  turn  in  the  glacier's  track,  and 
a  patch  of  outrageous  confusion.  The  whole  sur- 
face seemed  shattered,  and  serac-like  monuments, 
poised  all  over,  threatened  us.  We  were  constantly 
startled  by  crashes,  and  we  moved  with  alarmed 
caution,  for  not  only  were  the  holes  deep  but  they 
opened  into  sluiceways  of  hurrying  water  quite 
capable  of  sucking  any  unwary  intruder  into  sub- 
terranean tunnels  of  ice.  The  dull  plangor  of  the 
beating  currents    arose    to    us    with    an  ominous 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  133 

warning.  The  dogs  here  became  nervous  and  un- 
manageable. Again  and  again  we  bridged  the 
chasms  with  the  sledge,  and  crept  one  by  one  over 
the  improvised  crossings,  coaxing  the  dogs  to  fol- 
low. We  now  did  not  have  the  protection  of  the 
friendly  banks.  Goritz  had  concluded  to  ascend 
the  mountainous  ridge  before  us  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  glacier,  where  the  glacier  itself,  like  a 
small  ''jokull"  terminated,  or  began,  in  a  neve 
loaded  cirque. 

To  do  this  we  were  compelled  to  cross  the  glacier. 
After  a  good  deal  of  dangerous  work,  with  one  or 
two  nearly  fatal  mishaps,  we  attained  the  central 
dome  of  the  ice  and  found  here  an  ideally  fashioned 
space  for  resting  and  feeding.  The  dogs  were 
restless  or  sullen  from  hunger,  and  we  needed  the 
encouragement  of  food  ourselves.  The  worst  limb 
of  our  trip  remained. 

But  it  was  a  beautiful  picture  on  every  side. 
The  day  was  clear  and  warm,  and,  as  we  gazed  far 
below  at  the  ice  flecked  ocean  over  the  glacier's 
marge,  or  upward  into  the  rugged  bowl,  walled 
with  bold  precipices,  streaked  ever  and  anon  with 
spouting  waterfalls,  or  higher  still  to  those  mute, 
imperishable  peaks,  guarding  the  secrets  of  the 
wonder-land  towards  which  we  were  slowly, 
so  slowly,  moving,  or  lastly  at  the  nearer  edges  of 
land  on  either  side,  the  constricted  throat  of  the 
glacier  serpent,  bountifully  sprinkled  with  a  ver- 
meil of  audacious  blossoms  and  tender  grass,  we 
felt  the  thrill  of  our  strange  adventure  keenly,  and 
rejoiced  in  it.  But  a  few  minutes  later  our  spirits 
were  harshly  dashed,  and  despair  almost  broke  our 
hearts. 

It  was  about  two  in  the  afternoon;  everything 
was  repacked  and  we  had  resumed  our  snail-like 
progress.  The  path,  if  it  had  been  marked  by  a  line, 
would   have  been   revealed   as  a   maze   of  loops, 


134  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

necessitating  countermarches  and  criss-crossings, 
but  its  widest  indirection,  after  hours  of  work, 
showed  that  we  were  nearing  our  goal.  The 
fiowers  on  the  cUfT  beyond  us  were  now  almost 
individually  visible.  They  seemed  like  a  lure  to 
invite  us  to  hasten  to  their  side,  when  a  jolt  and 
tug,  that  nearly  knocked  my  legs  from  under  me, 
and  then  a  recoil  that  sent  me  sprawling  among 
the  dogs. 

The  rope  had  parted;  I  saw  its  end  fly  upward, 
even  as  I  saw  the  tall  form  of  Goritz  with  tossing 
arms  sink  from  sight.  My  God!  Goritz  had  fallen 
into  a  crevasse  and — how  the  thought  lacerated 
me! — they  were  deepest,  widest,  on  this  side! 
Hopkins  and  the  Professor  knew  it  almost  as 
quickly  as  myself.  We  recovered  ourselves,  and 
ran  forward.  Lying  fiat,  on  the  rim  of  what  had 
been  a  snow  bridged  crevasse,  and  held  in  position 
by  the  other  two,  I  leaned  out.  Never  shall  I  for- 
get the  horror  of  my  feelings  at  that  moment. 
Below  me  caught  on  an  ice  arm,  which  held  him 
above  the  seething  ice  water,  still  deeper  down  on 
the  floor  of  the  gash,  was  Goritz,  those  splendid 
eyes  imploringly  lifted  to  mine: 

"Quick,  Alfred — the  rope!"  I  tore  the  rope  from 
around  me,  noosed  it,  shouting  all  the  time  in  a  sort 
of  delirium  I  think,  "Hold  on  Antoine,  you're  safe! 
Hold  on!  On!  On!"  And  then,  with  a  glance  at 
Hopkins  and  the  Professor,  whose  faces  were 
almost  whiter  than  the  snow  at  our  feet,  was  on  my 
stomach  again,  the  rope  in  my  hand,  and  the  noose 
lowered  carefully  to  my  friend.  He  lay  on  his  side 
on  a  shelf  of  ice;  a  movement  and  he  would  slip 
into  the  tide  below  him.  It  was  a  critical  moment, 
and  yet  only  with  the  utmost  precautionary  slow- 
ness and  delicacy  of  adjustment  could  the  rescue  be 
effected.  Goritz  knew  that,  though  it  seemed 
incongruous  to  watch  a  man,  prostrate,  literally  on 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  135 

the  brink  of  destruction,  approach  the  measures  of 
salvation  with  the  deliberation  with  which  one 
might  crack  the  shell  of  his  breakfast  egg.  Slowly — 
the  seconds  seemed  ages — he  drew  the  loop  to  him- 
self, caught  one  arm  in  it,  thrust  his  head  through 
it,  and  was  endeavoring  to  extricate  his  other  arm 
from  its  chancery  beneath  him,  to  engage  it  too  in 
the  friendly  loop,  when — I  heard  the  snap — the 
shelf  broke  away!  I  slammed  backward,  called 
to  the  others  to  pull,  jabbed  my  spiked  shoes  into 
the  ice,  and  held  on.  Goritz's  voice  came  thickly 
from  his  imprisonment: 

"Haul,  Alfred!" 

And  haul  it  was;  the  weight  seemed  trebled.  I 
knew — the  water  was  hauling  too,  but,  before  Goritz 
went,  it  might,  for  all  I  cared,  drag  me  to  the  same 
doom.  I  guess  Hopkins  and  the  Professor  felt  that 
way,  too.  It  seemed  nip  and  tuck.  Were  we  all  to  be 
pulled  into  the  frigid  maelstrom,  to  be  finally  ejected 
into  the  Arctic  sea  in  the  rush  of  the  sub-glacial  river? 
Somehow  thinking  this  way  put  steel  into  our 
muscles  and  defiance  in  my  heart,  and — we  pulled 
Antoine  Goritz  back  to  life  at  least,  and  his  recep- 
tion on  the  top  of  that  glacier  was  as  fervent,  if  a 
little  less  boisterous  and  showy,  as  if  he  had  been 
met  by  the  king  in  an  audience  room  at  Copenhagen. 
He  was  drenched  and  cold,  had  a  wrenched  shoulder 
but  I  took  his  place  ahead  now,  and  he  dried  off 
with  exercise,  after  the  fashion  of  Arctic  navigators. 
And  a  bowl  of  tea  that  the  Professor  bewitched 
with  a  little  of  our  last  bottle  of  whisky  helped 
matters. 

We  had  left  the  glacier;  that  icy  track  was  far 
below  us,  and  distance  contracting  and  closing  all 
its  wicked  seams  revealed  it  as  a  blazing  white 
ribbon,  negligently  thrown  over  the  shoulders  of 
the  still,  black  rocks.  It  looked  well.  The 
aneroid  registered  6000  feet.     The  snow  was  awful 


136  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

in  spots,  and  we  rolled  into  holes  unsuspectedly 
saturated  with  water.  Our  snowshoes  were  indis- 
pensable, but  the  dogs  were  almost  useless,  flound- 
ering and  helpless  in  the  drifts.  Our  dog  meat  was 
rapidly  diminishing,  and,  if  the  cruel  dilemma  must 
come,  rather  than  to  exhaust  our  supplies  on  them 
we  would  be  compelled  to  kill  them. 

We  were  pushing  along  what  bore  the  appear- 
ance of  a  col  or  pass  between  two  majestic  peaks, 
wrapped  in  ermine  to  their  highest  points,  ermine 
that  in  the  day  glittered  magnificently,  rayed  and 
starred  with  innumerable  irises,  and  that  in  the 
lesser  illumination  of  the  night  was  immobile  and 
dead,  a  monstrous  winding  sheet  over  a  dead  world' 

A  terrifying  snow  storm  held  us  up  for  two  days. 
The  air  was  so  dense  with  the  falling  crystals  that 
we  felt  encased.  It  was  a  singular  sensation.  The 
Professor,  who  had  been  incubating  some  ideas(we 
always  looked  forward  with  expectancy  to  his  first 
utterance  after  a  spell  of  prolonged  silence), 
launched  the  amazing  paradox,  during  this  storm, 
and  while  we,  in  the  most  detached  manner  awaited 
its  conclusion  in  our  snug  tent,  that  we  were 
approaching  a  warmer,  snowless,  and  rainy  zone. 
It  was  Hopkins  who  first  recovered  his  powers  of 
utterance  after  this  promulgation. 

"Professor,  as  a  sedative  to  the  distracted  mind, 
you've  got  everything  else  winded.  And  for 
novelty,  well,  Barnum  and  Bailey's  best  advertiser 
couldn't  begin  to  get  the  collocation  of  superlatives 
necessary  to  give  a  hint  of  your  surprising  guesses." 

"It  is  not  difficult  to  understand,"  resumed  the 
Professor  urbanely,  with  that  calm  manner  of 
shelving  the  unconventional  Yankee  which  always 
enraptured  Hopkins;  "the  wind  has  been  westerly, 
the  excessive  precipitation  shows  it  was  a  moist 
wind,  a  wind  heavily  laden  with  suspended  water, 
that  moisture  was  dropped  out  as  snow  here,  but 


THEJNEW  NORTHLAND  137 

west  of  us  it  must  have  escaped  expulsion.  Why? 
Because  it  was  not  cold  enough  to  condense  it  as 
snow.  I  think,  though,  it  fell  as  rain.  We  shall 
see." 

"And,"  he  added  a  moment  later,  "on  my  theory 
of  a  polar  depression  that  would  be  so." 

We  went  to  sleep  on  that,  and  the  depth  of  our 
slumbers  had  some  complimentary  significance  for 
the  Professor's  prediction. 

After  the  storm,  the  sky  failed  to  clear,  and  a 
wind  sprang  up  from  the  north  that  rapidly  in- 
creased in  violence,  hurling  the  snow  in  torrents, 
blinding,  cutting  us  and  foundering  the  wretched 
dogs,  who  lay  down  in  their  tracks  repeatedly,  or 
snarled  up  together  in  vicious  fights.  But  Goritz 
was  inexorable.  He  insisted  on  pushing  ahead. 
His  reason  was  just.  We  were  now  near  the  turn- 
ing point;  we  had  surmounted  KROCKER  LAND 
RIM.  Should  we  go  on  or  turn  back?  If  it  was  to 
be  back  we  had  many  things  to  think  of,  and  not 
much  time  to  waste,  with  our  larder  growing 
smaller  each  day  and  the  prospect  of  half-rations 
ahead.  Goritz  had  a  tender  heart  and  I  know  he 
wanted  to  get  the  dogs  back,  too. 

Luckily  the  snow  furnished  better  going,  the 
wind  ceased,  our  hearts  leaped  again,  and  the  stern 
solemnity  of  that  alpine  land  strangely  elated  us. 
At  night  now,  the  sun  almost  sank  below  the  hori- 
zon, but  its  decline  was  the  signal  for  the  noiseless 
evocation  of  half  lights  and  shadows,  spectral  tints, 
pale  ghosts  of  mist  curling  over  the  endless  desert  of 
snow,  a  retinue  of  chiaroscuros  that  glided  hither, 
thither,  never  quiet,  yet  never  restless.  And  far 
south  we  thought  we  saw  the  crystal  light  of  half 
eclipsed  auroras.  It  all  entranced  me.  I  often 
stole  outside  our  tent  to  watch  the  voiceless  drama 
of  the  night,  and  often  Goritz  stood  beside  me. 
And  now — poor  fellow — " 


138  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

(The  speaker  paused  in  his  story,  a  sob  choked  his 
voice;   then  it  was  over  and  he  continued.) 

The  Professor  was  right;  the  snowdrifts  thinned 
away  to  bare  ground.  It  was  warmer,  at  first  some 
ten  degrees,  then  more,  and  the  land  descended. 
Had  not  Goritz  lost?  Should  we  not,  according  to 
the  protocol  of  our  agreement,  search  the  new  land? 
Goritz  was  unconvinced  and  inclined  to  temporize. 
Yes,  the  land  was  lower,  perhaps;  it  was  warmer, 
but  how  did  we  know  it  would  keep  so;  a  small 
decline  here  might  change  into  an  ascent  further 
away;  we  were  on  a  tableland,  but  another  axis 
of  elevation  might  arise  from  it,  and  remember  in 
these  solitudes  there  was  not  much  life,  no  game, 
and  our  stores  would  in  ten  days  be  exhausted,  not 
counting  the  dogs,  some  of  whom  must  now  be 
sacrificed  for  the  others. 

This  had  the  appearance  of  tergiversation.  The 
Professor  was  vehement,  I  and  Hopkins  leaned  in 
his  favor,  but  I  think  all  of  us  would  have  suc- 
cumbed to  Goritz's  wish  and  certainly  to  his 
command — the  sweetest,  bravest,  most  generous 
soul  I  have  ever  known!  At  length,  at  Hopkins' 
suggestion,  we  compromised  again  on  a  reconnais- 
sance. 

It  was  a  pivotal  point.  We  were  in  a  sandy 
plain,  with  much  bare  rock,  and  soily  places  now 
greenish  with  moss  or  lichen.  The  surprising 
feature  was  the  sudden  onsets  of  rain  with  the  east 
winds.  It  was  rather  misty  all  the  time,  and  the 
fogs  made  it  abysmally  cheerless.  It  was  easy  to  see 
that  this  excessive  moisture  formed  the  fathomless 
snows  among  the  mountains  we  had  ploughed  over. 

On  the  day  of  the  reconnaissance  we  all  separated. 
Goritz  went  north,  the  Professor,  pertinacious  in  his 
convictions,  went  due  west,  with  the  aneroid, 
Hopkins  and  myself  southward.  Our  reports  were 
to  be  made  at  the  conference  at  night.     We  reas- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  139 

sembled,  all  except  Goritz  turning  up  at  the  tent  at 
almost  the  same  time.  Hopkins  said  that  for  stone 
breaking,  the  country  he  had  walked  over  was  the 
most  promising  he  had  ever  encountered.  He 
couldn't  imagine  a  better  place  for  a  penal 
establishment.  A  reservation  like  it  alongside 
of  New  York  City  would  raise  the  moral  stand- 
ard of  that  city  almost  as  high  as  anyone  would 
like  to  go.  He  thought  perhaps  we'd  better  turn 
back. 

The  Professor  disheartedly  admitted  that  the 
land  after  sinking  rose  abruptly,  and  that  there 
might  be  another  axis  of  elevation — the  Professor 
pronounced  the  technical  observation  with  evident 
disgust.  The  fogs  grew  so  dense  it  was  impossible 
to  determine.  He  concluded  dolefully  that,  as 
much  had  been  accomplished,  it  might  be  well  for 
self  preservation  to  return. 

I  corroborated  Hopkins,  and  also  suggested  a 
return.  We  had  been  talking  informally,  sharing 
our  observations,  but  their  detailed  presentation 
awaited  Goritz's  presence.  And  where  was  he? 
We  had  been  back  an  hour,  and  our  hunger  remon- 
strated bitterly  against  his  tardiness.  Still  another 
hour  passed,  and  nature  refused  to  tolerate  a  further 
deference  to  custom  or  respect.  We  ate  our  even- 
ing rations — already  they  were  being  shortened — 
concluding  to  go  out  on  a  search  for  Goritz,  if  he  did 
not  soon  come  in.  Another  hour  hurried  by,  and 
yet  no  Goritz.  We  began  to  be  alarmed,  and  yet 
that  seemed  absurd.  What  harm  could  come  to  a 
man  in  that  flat  land?  And  to  a  man  of  Goritz's 
strength  and  resources?  Hardly  had  we  thus 
reassured  ourselves  when  the  tent  flap  was  pushed 
aside,  and  there  stood  Antoine  Goritz,  with  one 
hand  behind  his  back. 

His  melodious  voice  was  raised,  his  eyes  shone, 
his  frame  seemed  expanded  with  excitement,  his 


140  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

face  was  flushed,  and  the  disengaged  hand  opened 
and  shut  convulsively. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "we  shall  go  on.  Krocker 
Land  is  inhabited,  and — it  is  a  LAND  OF  GOLD!" 

He  paused,  stepped  forward,  and  laid  on  our 
soap-box  table  a  broad  belt  of  gold  plates,  engraved, 
and  united  by  a  gold  buckle,  beautifully  embossed. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Perpetual  Nimbus 

You  probably  might  recall,  Mr.  Link,  that  won- 
derful chapter  in  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  where  Defoe 
describes  the  feelings  of  his  hero  after  he  found  the 
footprints  in  the  sand.  I  mention  it  here  because 
I  am  amused  at  the  memory  of  how  different  were 
our  emotions  as  Goritz  showed  us  the  gold  belt. 
I  turned  last  night  to  the  pages  of  Defoe's  master- 
piece and  jotted  down  this  appropriate  quotation; 
it  illustrates  completely  what  I  mean. 

"I  slept  none  that  night:  the  farther  I  was  from  the 
occasion  of  my  fright,  the  greater  my  apprehensions  were: 
which  is  something  contrary  to  the  nature  of  such  things, 
and  especially  to  the  usual  practice  of  all  creatures  in  fear: 
but  I  was  so  embarrassed  with  my  own  frightful  ideas  of 
the  thing,  that  I  formed  nothing  but  dismal  imaginations 
to  myself,  even  though  I  was  not  a  great  way  off  from  it. 
Sometimes  I  fancied  it  must  be  the  Devil,  and  reason 
joined  in  with  me  upon  this  supposition;  for  how  should 
any  other  thing  in  human  shape  come  into  the  place?" 

That  gold  belt  to  us  we  knew  meant  human  occu- 
pation of  this  New  Continent,  and  it  was  almost 
impossible  for  us  to  control  our  violent  joy  over  the 
discovery.  We  were  not  worrying  as  to  whether 
it  was  the  Devil  or  savages,  and  we  felt  sure  we  were 
not  the  victims  of  illusion.  Perhaps  a  little  trepi- 
dation crept  in  later,  but  for  that  moment  we  were 
beside  ourselves  with  happiness  and  wonder.  And 
yet  we  were  at  first  silent,  dumbfounded,  bending 

141 


142  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

over  the  strange  find  in  dazed  delight,  eager  yet  in- 
credulous, lost  in  a  bewilderment  of  anticipation. 

The  Professor  had  produced  a  small  pocket  glass 
and  was  nervously  inspecting  the  plates,  very  much 
to  our  annoyance,  his  ears  and  head  seeming 
constantly  to  be  pushing  our  faces  away.  A  look 
of  profound  vindication  appeared  on  his  features, 
and  I  think  we  sympathized  with  his  feelings  and 
applauded  them.  Goritz  beamed  benignantly, 
and  I  knew  Hopkins  was  on  the  verge  of  a  metrical 
quotation.     But  the  Professor  had  the  floor. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  began,  "this  belt  has  no  possible 
relation  to  any  know  human  culture.  The  fabrica- 
tors of  this  chef  d'oetivre — it's  such  in  every  sense — 
have  probably  never  existed  outside  of  the  eccentric 
depression — the  size  of  a  small  continent — into 
which  we  shall  be  privileged  to  descend."  The 
Professor  bowed  to  Goritz,  who  was  radiant  from 
his  approbation. 

He  continued:  "The  figures  engraved  on  these 
plates,  the  relievos  on  this  buckle,  are  autochthon- 
ous"— Hopkins  emitted  a  low  whistle.  "They  are, 
however,  distinctly  colubrine,  reptilian,  crotaline, 
lacertilian,  poly-catabolic-arbori-animalistic.  They 
indicate  a  serpent  worship  and  a  tree  worship,  and 
are  reminiscent  of  the  Fall;  I  may  call  it  the  re- 
capitulative survival  of  myth." 

Hopkins'  whistle  had  been  attempting  some 
shriller  ejaculations  of  surprise,  but  the  verbal 
avalanche  smothered  it.  It  was  a  suffocating 
moment  for  all  of  us,  and  when  Hopkins  said, 
"Professor,  with  a  cocktail  on  top  of  this  I  believe 
our  cerebral  intoxication  would  be  complete,"  the 
interior  danger  of  explosion  increased  almost 
beyond  control.  But  the  Professor  kept  on,  and  a 
little  "plain  stuff,"  as  Hopkins  called  it  helped  us 
out  of  our  embarrassment. 

"An  animal  like  a  crocodile  or  an  alligator,  in  a 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  143 

peculiar  stage  of  evolution,  approaching  that  of  a 
serpent,  is  depicted  here,"  his  finger  touched  the 
buckle,  "and  everywhere  else  are  variations  of  one 
theme,  the  Serpent  and  the  Tree.  The  people  of 
this  Navel  of  the  World  retain  the  traditions  of  our 
religion." 

After  that  we  all  became  intensely  interested  in 
the  belt  or  girdle,  but  we  withheld  our  comments. 
Our  pretense  was  sincere  enough.  We  were  inter- 
ested, so  interested  that  it  would  have  been  impos- 
sible for  any  of  us — the  Professor  alone  was  capable 
of  such  sublime  detachment — to  have  slept  a  wink 
if  we  had  tried  to,  but  then  our  interest,  in  which 
mingled  the  elixir  of  a  fabulous  Hope,  succeeding 
days  and  weeks  of  danger  and  uncertainty,  was 
satisfied  at  a  lower  stage  of  realization.  With  us  it 
was  MEN  and  GOLD,  and,  scintillating  back  of 
these  noble  facts,  was  the  speechless  marveling  of 
the  world  of  letters,  of  science,  at  our  recital,  if  ever 
we  got  back  to  those  things. 

I  asked  Goritz  all  about  it  when  we  were  together 
outside  of  the  tent.  It  seems  he  had  walked  about 
three  miles  from  the  camp,  and  was  watching  a 
flurry  of  wind  tear  up  the  water  of  a  little  pool, 
literally  boring  it  all  out  in  spray,  when,  as  the 
action  was  accomplished,  he  saw  the  glint  of  the 
gold.  Another  look  and  the  belt  was  in  his  hand. 
He  sat  down  to  catch  his  breath,  and  to  quiet  the 
beating  of  his  heart,  and  then  when  he  had 
recovered  his  composure,  he  had  gone  on,  believing 
that  other  trinkets  might  turn  up,  or  that  he  might 
encounter  its  makers,  or  anything  in  fact  that  might 
explain  the  treasure  trove — but  the  search  had  been 
unavailing. 

"Well,"  I  said  as  he  finished,  "what  do  you 
think?  The  Professor  has  some  wild  notions  about 
it,  but  it  looks  to  me  as  if  the  Professor  has  all  along 
sailed  pretty  close  to  the  wind." 


144  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"Yes,  Alfred,"  he  answered,  "there's  a  kernel  of 
truth  in  his  talk.  Of  course  I  always  thought  so  or 
I  wouldn't  have  come  at  all — And  Alfred,"  his 
splendid  eyes  searched  my  own  in  that  great  way  he 
had,  "I  have  had  curious  premonitions  just  now, 
as  I  walked  back  to  the  camp.  We  are  coming 
upon  incomprehensible  things.  We  must  go  on, 
though  we  may  cross  starvation  before  we  reach 
food,  and — the  marvels  beyond.  The  rations  I  know 
are  low,  and  I  know  too  we've  a  bad  way  ahead — 
Mais,  esperons." 

I  would  have  said  more  but  before  us  stood 
Hopkins.  He  was  actually  smoking — "to  keep 
from  going  bug-house,"  he  explained,  and  then  he 
muttered : 

"  Send    me    to    the    Arctic    regions,    or 

illimitable  azure. 
On    a    scientific    goosechase,    with     my 

Coxwell  or  my  Glaisher." 

Camp  was  broken  up  the  next  morning.  We 
were  wild  to  get  away.  Before  we  started  the  dogs 
were  fed  the  last  of  the  bear  meat,  and  we  were  all 
put  on  half  rations;  the  demands  on  our  strength 
for  the  work  immediately  before  us  would  not  be 
great. 

I  also  got  a  chance  to  see  the  belt  better.  It  was 
very  short  and  made  up  of  plates  hooked  together 
with  a  larger  buckle.  There  was  absolutely  no 
metal  but  gold  in  it.  The  buckle  was  decorated 
with  an  impossible  serpentine  monster  with  legs 
and  a  snout-bearing  head,  indeed  a  thing  very  well 
described  by  the  Professor  as  a  cross  or  mixture  of 
a  huge  snake  and  an  alligator,  and  the  plates  were 
engraved  with  hieratic  markings  that  looked  like 
poles  encircled  by  spiral  lines. 

"So,"  I  said  to  myself,  "these  are  the  reminiscent 
Tree  and  the  Serpent." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  145 

"Look  to  me  like  bean  poles,"  remarked  Hopkins, 
who  was  looking  over  my  shoulder. 

On  we  went  west.  It  seemed  as  if  the  abomin- 
able rocks  and  sand  would  never  come  to  an  end, 
the  former  sharp  and  knife-like,  cutting  our  shoes, 
the  latter  whirling  in  blinding  sheets  against  our 
faces,  in  spite  of  the  almost  constant  fog,  and  even 
the  occasional  rain.  The  sledge  was  lightened  and 
moved  as  carefully  as  possible,  but  the  obstacles 
could  not  be  avoided  in  the  mist,  and  before  the 
day  was  half  over  it  was  a  wreck,  so  that  its  load 
had  to  be  distributed  among  us.  There  was  made 
at  once  a  concentration  of  everything  indispensable, 
and  the  rest  was  abandoned.  Our  heavy  packs  did 
not  help  our  progress.  The  wind  kept  westerly. 
It  was  strong.  We  were  astonished  at  the  absence 
of  snow  and  at  the  moderate  temperature.  The 
thermometer  denoted  0°  and  2°,  Centigrade. 
These  conditions  seemed  to  bear  out  the  Professor's 
claims,  and  the  altitude  was  decreasing  too.  Then 
came  a  desperately  stony  hollow,  and  the  land  rose 
steadily  until  we  were  even  higher  than  we  had 
been  at  the  start.  But  there  were  no  mountains 
about  us,  just  a  broad  back  of  sloping  rock,  "a  gigan- 
tic, intrusive,  basaltic  dike,"  said  the  Professor, 
between  gasps,  as  fog  smote  us  with  almost  the 
solidity  of  water. 

We  had  made  thirty  miles,  and  nature  and  the 
day  were  united  in  protest  against  a  longer  drive. 
A  yelp  ahead,  a  shout  from  Goritz  to  "fall  back," 
showed  some  danger  line  in  our  vicinity.  We  had 
not  stopped  one  instant  too  soon.  One  of  the  dogs 
had  plunged  over  a  precipice,  and  we  were  then 
standing  on  its  crumbling  edge.  By  one  of  those 
sudden  changes  in  nature  which  call  to  mind  a 
divertissement  in  a  scenic  theatrical  display,  the 
fogbanks  now  drifted  off  and  in  the  light  of  the  low 
western  sun  we  looked  out  over  a  strange  land. 


146  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

The  barren  and  roughened  ridge  at  last  ended  in 
this  inner  Hne  of  the  Krocker  Land  Rim.  It 
abruptly,  like  a  palisade  escarpment,  fell  off  into 
declivities  or  occasional  slopes  made  up  of  the 
talus  of  its  decomposition  or  dilapidation.  We 
gazed  now  on  a  singular  barrenness  of  steeply 
slanting  land,  ribbed  with  asperities  like  hogs'  backs, 
of  parallel  hills.  Over  this  land,  in  the  channels 
that  they  had  made  for  themselves,  some 
entrenched  in  precipitous  valleys,  rushed  streams 
fed  by  that  continual  precipitation  which  toward 
the  sea  became  snow,  and  inland  away  from  a 
colder  atmosphere  fell  in  torrents  of  rain. 

The  scene  was  indescribable,  not  by  reason  of 
variety  but  of  monotony  of  detail,  and  because 
beyond  it,  far  along  a  horizon  that  may  have  been 
fifty  or  more  miles  distant  the  most  perplexing 
vaporous  effects  prevailed.  What  it  might  be  it 
was  impossible  to  determine.  There  were  constant 
motions  there,  motions  explosive  and  gradual,  for 
we  could  almost  be  sure  that  the  cloudy  masses  were 
processioning  now  measuredly  in  huge  volume  and 
then  disordered  by  internal  rupture.  We  thought 
we  caught  the  flashes  of  electric  storms. 

The  scene  below  us  was  most  repellent.  The 
vicissitudes  of  cold  and  storm  had  ejected  all  sem- 
blance of  charm  from  those  black,  denuded  rocks. 
Their  asperities,  which  were  pinnacles  hundreds  of 
feet  high,  were  united  by  valleys  bare  to  the  eye, 
from  our  point  of  view,  of  all  vegetation,  the  whole 
combination  slanting  inward,  and  composing  a 
broad,  melanic  sterility  perhaps  only  paralleled  on 
the  lifeless  and  crater-pitted  plains  of  the  moon. 
The  violent  tossing  streams,  many  of  them  hidden 
in  defiles  of  erosion,  alone  imparted  the  sense  of 
animation,  and  even  this  animation  seemed  ruthless 
and  destructive.  It  was  utterly  sullen,  and  when 
it  was  not  sullen,  it  was  savage  and  threatening.     It 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  147 

was  all  so  overwhelming  that  we  simply  stared  at 
it,  voiceless  and  despairing. 

Hopkins  broke  the  spell  of  our  dismay:  "Well, 
Professor,  this  certainly  is  not  Paradise,  but  I'm 
willing  to  believe  that  it's  the  shell,  the  outside  of  it, 
and  a  pretty  hard  kind  of  a  nut  it  makes.  Can  we 
crack  it?'' 

That  indeed  was  the  question  we  all  silently 
asked.  Where  would  this  wilderness  of  rocks  and 
waters  lead  us?  Could  we  expect  to  find  game  or 
any  sort  of  food  in  this  tableland  of  sheer,  stark, 
desolation?  Our  supplies  were  daily  shrinking, 
and  we  had  been  a  little  wasteful  too,  deluded  by 
the  false  hope  of  soon  securing  succor.  It  was  a 
long  way  back  to  the  cache  on  the  tableland,  and  a 
longer  one  to  the  anchored  launch  on  the  sands  of 
the  coast,  but  how  far  was  it  ahead  of  us  to  life? 
At  least  behind  there  were  bears  and  musk  oxen, 
and  seal  and  duck;  did  anything  replace  them 
before  us?  It  made  us  pause;  the  risk  of  going  on 
was  considerable. 

Our  council  convened  under  rather  straightened 
circumstances  of  confidence  and  hope.  The  dogs 
would  be  of  no  use  in  the  marches  before  us,  unless 
indeed  we  threw  them  into  the  larder,  and  their  up- 
keep was  an  equivocal  handicap,  which  might  more 
than  offset  their  value  as  an  aid  to  the  commis- 
sariat. Goritz  said  we  had  forty  pounds  of  pro- 
visions, about  a  pound  a  day  for  each  man  for  ten 
days;  and  there  were  the  guns  and  ammunition  to 
be  carried  too,  the  instruments  and  the  stoves  and 
oil.  The  tent  outfit  could  be  left  behind;  at  a 
pinch  we  might  battle  through  without  it.  Battle, 
though,  to  WHAT?  Ah!  That  was  the  question. 
Were  we  in  a  dead  land?  Was  the  gold  belt  a  pre- 
historic relic,  having  no  relation  to  any  living  race, 
a  token  of  past  occupancy  by  a  people  who  had  fled 
from  the  fast  contracting  opportunities  of  life  in  this 


148  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Arctic  inferno?  It  was  a  good  illustration  of  the 
caprice  of  human  feelings,  our  total  rejection  of  the 
considerations  that  a  few  days  before  had  made  us 
jubilant,  boastful,  careless;  so  quickly  does  the 
average  man  reflect  the  color  of  his  surroundings. 

Our  position  was  dismal  indeed.  The  inexplic- 
able fogs  settled  around  us,  or,  if  the  west  wind 
blew — and  only  for  that  brief  interval  when  we 
caught  sight  of  the  bewildering  landscape  below  us, 
had  it  ceased  to  blow — drifted  over  us  in  endless 
cloud-like  masses.  A  precipice  was  before  us,  how 
many  more  were  beyond  that?  And  then  the 
return.  The  longer  we  thought  over  it,  and  turned 
the  angles  of  possibility  to  inspection  the  more 
hopeless  the  prospect  grew.  But  again  the  Gold 
Belt?  A  shining  lure  of  the  Demon  of  Death  to 
tempt  us  to  a  horrible  doom.  As  Goritz  ostenta- 
tiously showed  it  to  us  it  became  loathsome,  sinister, 
a  delusive  snare! 

And  this  led  to  our  great  surprise.  Goritz  wished 
to  go  on.  He  said  so.  This  quiet,  reserved, 
strong  man  handed  back  to  the  Professor  his  pre- 
dictions, subscribed  to  with  his  own  enthusiastic 
acceptance,  and  the  Professor,  pirouette-fashion, 
had  wheeled  around  in  a  rather  dogged  scepti- 
cism. I  think  Hopkins  and  myself,  out  of  pure 
dread,  favored  the  return.  Goritz  had  always 
resisted  the  quest.  The  gold  bauble  was  "getting 
in  its  fatal  work,"  whispered  Hopkins. 

Goritz  put  it  this  way:  We  couldn't  get  back. 
The  return  trip  would  be  far  harder  than  to  progress 
in  our  present  course.  We  had  no  sledge.  Every- 
thing pointed  to  success  if  we  could  keep  on.  The 
land  beyond  us  indicated  a  great  depression,  the 
fogs  rolling  over  us  showed  an  approaching  warmer 
area;  the  glimpse  that  had  been  permitted  us  was 
conclusive;  once  beyond  that  cloud  zone  and  the 
realities,  the  living  realities,  would  begin.     This 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  149 

gold  belt  (he  held  up  the  glittering  charm  that  had 
turned  his  head)  was  no  relic,  its  engraving  was  too 
fresh,  its  outlines  too  sharp;  it  had  been  brought 
where  he  had  found  it,  it  must  have  come  from  the 
west,  and  the  way,  practicable  for  its  former 
wearers,  was  practicable  for  us. 

"How  about  a  balloon,  an  aeroplane,  anything 
that  flies?"  suggested  Hopkins.  Antoine  Goritz 
became  scornful,  his  French  blood  often  came  to 
the  surface.  He  looked  straight  at  Hopkins,  and  a 
frown  clouded  his  face;   it  did  not  become  him. 

"Parbleu  vous  etes  fou,  mon  frere,  que  Je 

crois, 
Avec  de  tels  discours  vous  mogiiez  vous  de 

moi?'' 

Hopkins  didn't  wince;   it  wasn't  his  fashion. 

"Well,  Goritz,  I'm  game  for  the  deal.  You 
can't  put  it  over  me  with  your  parlez-vous.  But 
listen,  we'll  never  agree  on  this  stake.  It's  up  to 
the  little  Goddess  on  the  Wheel.  What  do  you 
say?"  He  tossed  something  in  the  air  and  shouted : 
"Fair  or  Foul?" 
"Fair,"  called  Goritz. 

The  shining  object  rattled  among  the  stones;  it 
had  a  silvery  lustre,  and  as  the  Yankee  stooped  and 
picked  it  up,  there  was  something  strangely  grave 
in  his  face. 

"You  win,  Goritz,"  he  calmly  said,  as  he 
pocketed  the  trinket,  "and  I'll  follow  you  till  the 
curtain  drops." 

He  rose  and  extended  his  hand;  it  was  grasped 
cordially  by  the  big  Dane,  the  two  men  facing  each 
other  at  almost  the  same  level,  both  beautiful  types 
of  manhood. 

"Mr.  Link,  the  object  that  Spruce  Hopkins  flung 
upwards,  and  cast  as  the  die  of  our  destiny  that  day 
is  in  my  hand."     (He  laid  a  flat  silver  medal  on  the 


150  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

table  between  us.  I  picked  it  up;  on  one  side  was 
a  masterly  execution  of  the  face  of  a  lovely  woman; 
on  the  other  was  a  sort  of  Satan.) 

"Mr.  Link,"  resumed  Erickson,  "that  woman  is 
Angelica  Sigurda  Tabasco,  and  that  man  Diaz 
Ilario  Aguadiente,  the  two  interesting  occupants  of 
No.  —  east  Fifty-eighth  Street,  from  whose  un- 
pleasant society  you  freed  me.  Hopkins  gave  me 
that  the  last  time  I  saw  him  alive.  What  he  told 
me  then  had  something  to  do  with  the  predicament 
you  found  me  in." 

(Mr.  Erickson  again  retired  into  his  obviously 
gloomy  thoughts,  which  I  did  not  attempt  to  dis- 
turb, and,  on  his  emergence,  continued  his  story.) 

This  impromptu  solution  won  the  day,  and  we 
prepared  for  the  unknown  transit  over  that 
unknown  territory  of  which  we  had  had  one  fleeting 
glimpse,  and  which  lay  somewhere  before  us,  in  a 
vast  milkness  of  mist. 

We  concluded  to  take  with  us  two  dogs;  the 
rest — now  three,  one  had  gone  mad  (piblodo)  and 
had  been  shot — were  killed,  and  a  cannibalistic 
feast  offered  to  the  survivors.  The  oil  and  stoves 
were  left  behind;  there  might  be  enough  fibre  or 
wood  for  fire,  at  least  we  hoped  so.  Our  packs  were 
made  as  light  as  possible  We  were  in  a  race,  like 
Mikkelsen's  last  lap,  a  Race  against  Hunger.  The 
sleeping-bags  were  discarded,  the  tent  we  carried  a 
short  distance  only.  No  grimmer  or  braver  deter- 
mination ever  animated  explorers;  we  were  not 
running  for  safety,  we  were  running  away  from  it. 
The  step  taken,  our  spirits  rose,  the  former  fancies 
swarmed  upon  us,  and  perhaps  the  gold  belt  again 
floated  before  our  vision,  an  omen  and  a  guide. 
This  imaginative  sway  of  anticipation  was  needed, 
or  else  we  could  never  have  plucked  up  courage  to 
make  the  fateful  start. 

The  beginning  was  symptomatic  enough  of  our 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  151 

coming  dangers.  To  get  over  and  down  the  preci- 
pice on  whose  edge  we  stood  was  impossible  without 
a  clearance  of  the  besetting  fogs,  and  fortunately, 
as  if  by  invitation  for  us  to  retain  our  resolution,  the 
fog  Hfted  on  the  morning  we  started.  We  were  on 
the  brink  of  a  high  columnar  black  wall,  rising  from 
200  feet  or  less  to  600  feet  or  more,  from  the  rocky 
floor  of  the  country  beyond.  We  searched  for  some 
pathway  for  descent.  Innumerable  shelves  and 
footholds  diversified  the  precipitous  faces  but  they 
were  far  apart,  and  often  offered  little  more  than 
space  for  a  bird  or  a  goat.  Once  down  the  first 
vertical  clififs  the  gigantic  heaps  of  talus  leaning 
against  their  bases  would  aff"ord  us  a  practicable 
though  rough  way  to  the  bottom.  And  now  we 
saw  with  astonishment  the  obvious  inclination  of 
the  farther  land.  It  seemed  an  almost  unbroken 
hillside,  coursed  by  streams  and  stream  beds,  fur- 
rowed by  dry,  stony  valleys,  cut  by  the  low,  ser- 
rated backs  of  steep  hills,  the  whole  landscape 
terminating  in  that  distant  medley  of  rolling  clouds, 
streaming  vapor  banks  barely  discernible,  except  as, 
so  it  seemed,  they  were  lit  by  flashes  of  light. 
Were  we  on  the  outer  flanks  of  a  continental  lava 
bed,  and  was  that  cloud  space  beyond  the  lip  of  a 
vast  volcanic  confusion?  The  question  was  not 
asked  aloud,  but  its  staggering  terror  made  us 
tremble.  Never,  Mr.  Link,  did  men  more  heroic- 
ally walk  into  the  shadows  of  the  Valley  of  Death 
than  did  we. 

The  morning  sun  sent  long  shadows  westward; 
the  day  was  actually  warm;  a  sudden  brightness 
encouraged  us.  If  the  food  lasted!  That  was  the 
terror  that  haunted  us.  Could  it?  At  last  Goritz 
discovered  far  northward  a  gorge  or  ravine  reaching 
almost  to  the  top  of  the  palisade.  Down  this  we 
scrambled  and  found  ourselves  in  the  bed  of  a  low 
stream,  which  a  day  later  became  a  swollen  torrent, 


152  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

so  quickly  did  precipitation  feed  the  rivers,  and  so 
enormous  was  its  volume.  This  made  our  daily 
progress  more  dangerous.  We  were  soaked  and 
miserable  ourselves,  but  the  protection  to  our  food 
was  imperfect,  and  that  gave  rise  to  serious  doubts 
as  to  whether  it  would  last  us  ten  days,  the  calcu- 
lated limit  before  its  exhaustion.  The  biscuit  half 
turned  to  dough  and  the  drenched  tea  exuded  in 
tawny  drops  from  our  packs.  This  led  to  a  read- 
justment and  each  man  carried  his  rations  of  tea 
and  biscuit  and  chocolate  underneath  his  coat. 
The  pemmican,  force  meat,  cabbage  and  beans  are 
safe  enough  on  our  backs. 

It  soon  became  necessary  to  desert  the  watery 
defile  which  we  had  first  entered;  it  became  more 
and  more  confined,  the  banks  were  literally  stone 
heaps,  and  after  one  or  two  perilous  slips  which 
might  have  accelerated  our  progress  by  dumping  us 
into  the  chasing  flood  we  painfully  climbed  out  over 
a  high  rocky  ridge  on  the  summit  of  which  our  sight 
was  cheered  to  find  low,  herbaceous  growths.  Here 
we  managed  to  extort  a  niggardly  flame  which  was 
assisted  by  oil  Goritz  alone  had  had  the  prudence 
to  add  to  his  load,  and  our  evening  meal  was  eaten 
in  some  gratitude. 

The  rains,  distressing  as  they  were  at  intervals, 
when  the  downpour  became  most  vehement,  were 
on  the  whole  preferable  to  the  fogs.  They  cleared 
the  air,  and  we  could  see  our  way,  calculate  inter- 
ruptions and  avoid  disaster.  As  we  went  on  the 
vegetation  increased  in  quantity,  and  often  smiling 
— they  seemed  smiling  to  our  tired  eyes  although 
lit  by  no  sunlight — patches  around  us  in  sheltered 
corners  aff^orded  welcome  though  damp  camping 
grounds.  Our  clothes  were  torn  by  frequent  falls, 
and  our  shoes  are  turning  into  tangled  shreds.  The 
Professor  had  sprained  his  wrist  badly — he  nar- 
rowly escaped  rolling  down  an  embankment  which 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  153 

might  have  put  him  out  of  the  running  altogether — 
and  Goritz  is  in  pain.  I  know  it  by  his  Hmping 
gait,  and  the  twitches  of  suffering  that  cross  his 
face.  Something  is  the  matter  with  me  too, 
fatigue  and  the  insufificient  or  canned  food  is 
telHng  on  me.  My  muscles  are  stiff  and  aching, 
the  joints  of  my  limbs  red  and  swollen,  and  dark 
blue  spots  were  showing  on  my  skin.     Is  it  scurvy? 

It  is  the  sixth  day,  and  we  believe  we  have 
made  seventy  miles.  The  cloud  zone  is  ap- 
proaching; our  prospect  every  day  grows  more 
extraordinary,  more  terrifying;  we  encamp 
behind  a  shoulder  of  rock,  on  a  low  upland  which 
separated  two  roaring  rivers.  The  rain  had 
stopped  and  a  colder  atmosphere  reveals  the  scene. 
The  temperature  is  just  above  2°  Centigrade,  the 
aneroid  shows  we  had  fallen  two  thousand  feet 
since  we  had  left  the  Krocker  Land  Rim.  We  are 
immobile,  in  a  sort  of  stupor,  yet  fascinated  by  the 
spectacle.  Hopkins  alone  remains  cheerful  and 
garrulous. 

"Professor,"  he  chatters,  "the  Rocky  Road  to 
Dublin  had  nothing  on  this  boulevard.  The 
gentleman  who,  by  reason  of  a  congenital  failing, 
which  was  assisted  by  circumstances  outside  of  his 
control,  complained  of  the  narrowness  rather  than 
the  length  of  the  street  would  be  inclined  to  make 
some  severe  reflections  on  this  thoroughfare  also. 
But  we  can  be  pretty  sure  the  transformation  takes 
place  the  other  side  of  the  proscenium-show 
yonder." 

Poor  Spruce  Hopkins,  he  kept  up  his  joviality  for 
our  benefit,  but  we  didn't  care  much  and  I  don't 
think  he  did.  We  were  starving;  it  was  half  a 
pound  now  a  day.  But  Goritz  never  wavered  a 
hair,  he  urged  us  on,  he  promised  food,  rest,  recrea- 
tion even,  if  we  would  persevere  through  the  cloud 
curtain. 


154  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

And  now  we  were  under  it,  cowering  in  dread 
before  the  awfulness  and  magnitude  of  it.  It  rose 
in  towering  gushes  of  stream,  belched  forth  from  a 
huge  crack  in  the  crust  of  the  earth  in  which  poured 
the  full  rivers  that  had  accompanied  our  march. 
Those  rivers  entered  recesses  of  the  heated  earth, 
and  were  returned  in  steam  with  detonations  and 
earthquakes,  so  that 

The  frame  and  huge  foundation  of  the  earth 
Shak'd  like  a  coward. 

Reviewing  it  now,  as  it  was  revealed  to  us  later 
upon  examination  and  study,  the  physiography  of 
the  stupendous  phenomenon  we  had  reached  was 
this.  Some  strain  had  cracked  the  crust  of  the 
earth  in  a  long  arcuate  rift ;  it  suggested  the  crevice 
and  it  was  irregular  in  the  same  way,  which  is  seen 
in  the  Almannaja  in  Iceland,  but  it  was  profoundly 
deep,  and  the  area  communicated  with  the  igneous 
interior.  The  water  that  was  continually  con- 
densed from  the  steam  that  poured  upward  from 
the  huge  fissure,  as  continually  was  returned,  and, 
except  for  interruptions  in  the  reciprocal  exchange 
produced  by  meteorological  conditions,  such  as  cold, 
heat  and  varying  winds,  this  curious  equilibration 
was  unbroken,  had  been  for  ages.  The  emergence 
of  the  steam  was  irregular,  though  it  was  always 
coming  up  at  some  points,  and  there  was  a  syn- 
chrony between  points.  We  discovered  later  that 
at  very  distant  places  from  our  position  on  the 
great  circular  break  there  was  no  steam.  The 
rock  beneath  had  become  thoroughly  cooled  and 
congealed,  or  the  inner  fires  were  absent,  and  the 
water  entering  the  chasm  was  lost  within  the  crust, 
or  else,  deviously  percolating  laterally  may  have 
subsequently  contributed  its  supply  to  the  active 
steam  geysers  when  it  touched  the  heated  surfaces 
which  formed  the  sources  of  the  latter's  energy. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  155 

Therefore  you  may  place  this  picture  before  your 
mind,  of  a  steam  wall  projected  from  a  raggedly 
edged,  very  broad  earth  rift,  absorbed  by  the 
atmosphere,  or  condensed  in  clouds,  and  inter- 
mittently returned  to  the  earth  in  rain  or  if  trans- 
ferred by  westerly  winds,  falling  outside  of  the 
Krocker  Land  Rim  in  snow. 

The  explosions  that  rent  and  shattered  this 
steam  veil,  or  shattered  the  cloud  masses  above  us, 
were  at  first  difficult  to  explain.  It  was  after  we 
had  penetrated  and  crossed  the  abyss  that  the 
Professor  suggested  that  they  were  due  to  a  partial 
decomposition  of  some  part — a  very,  very  small 
part — of  the  steam  into  the  gases  hydrogen  and 
carbonic  oxide,  where  coal  or  carbonaceous  deposits 
existed  at  rare  or  higher  heats,  and  that  these  explo- 
sive mixtures,  retained  somehow  in  the  steam, 
undiffused,  were  fired  by  electric-lightning  sparks. 
This  theory  never  seemed  scientific  to  me.  But 
the  fact  of  such  disturbances  remained,  and  it  was 
owing  to  the  momentary  glimpse  a  terrific  shock  of 
this  kind  permitted  us  across  the  void,  that  we 
picked  up  daring  enough  to  make  the  attempt  to 
cross  the  horrid  gap. 

We  were  within  perhaps  five  hundred  feet  of  the 
spouting  cauldron,  where  rain  was  constantly 
falling,  crawling  over  rocks  wet  and  slippery, 
astonished  and  half  delighted  at  the  luxuriant 
development  of  moss  on  the  lips  of  pools  or  saucers 
of  water,  and  noting  a  great  rise  in  temperature, 
with  that  peculiar  buried  tumult  of  hissing,  issuing 
from  the  earth,  when  this  happened.  There  was  a 
flash,  a  roar,  and,  as  if  a  gigantic  hand  had  parted 
the  dense  curtain  before  us,  our  eyes  crossed  the 
gulf,  and  we  saw  a  land  of  greenness  and  of  light! 

Stunned,  half  sick,  hungry,  with  a  gnawing 
wretchedness  of  desire,  it  almost  seemed  that  we 
had  been  duped  by  some  illusion  born  of  our  weak- 


156  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

ness  and  the  deceptive  play  of  the  illuminated  mist. 
Huddled  together  in  a  niche  of  the  rocks  that  were 
in  places  dissected  by  cracks,  that  also  discharged 
tenuous  lines  of  steam,  we  talked  in  whispers  over 
the  marvelous  apparition.  Yes,  we  had  all  seen  it. 
There  could  be  no  mistake,  but  Goritz  had  seen 
more.  Across  the  black,  vomiting  pit  was  a  bridge 
of  rock!  It  might  have  been  some  remaining  parti- 
tion, holding  its  place  against  disintegration, 
spared  in  some  way  for  our  salvation  from  the  des- 
tructive agencies  that  had  here  ripped  the  crust 
asunder,  or  indeed  it  might  have  been  built  up  from 
some  later  solidified  eruption.     Had  he  seen  it? 

Goritz  was  madly  certain  about  that.  Well, 
and  if  he  had,  could  we  use  it?  There  are  desperate 
stages  in  desperation  that  breed,  Ajax-like,  defiance 
of  danger.  The  sudden  realization  of  a  world  of 
beauty,  a  world  of  food,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
steaming  pit,  nerved  our  poor  flagging  bodies,  and 
summoned  an  audacity  of  will  to  our  minds!  It 
was  our  last  chance.  Myths  of  the  past  in  that 
delirious  moment  flocked  back  to  my  mind,  which 
pictured  guarded  paradises,  defended  gardens  of 
delight,  treasures  watched  by  dragons,  elysiums 
hedged  with  terrors,  and  always,  always  courage 
won  the  prize,  and  passed  the  dangers.  And  yet 
there  must  be  caution;  the  old  refrain  sounded  in 
my  ears,  Be  not  too  bold! 

Goritz  and  Hopkins,  the  least  impaired,  recon- 
noitered  the  pass.  They  moved  down  some  stepped 
ledges  and  were  lost  to  sight.  In  an  hour  or  so  they 
returned.  Their  faces  were  lighted  with  hopeful- 
ness. They  both  believed  the  path  was  negotiable, 
and  they  both  agreed  that  there  were  periodic  ces- 
sations of  the  fiercer  ebullitions  from  below.  It 
was  also  discovered  that  we  could  not  make  our 
way  to  the  right  or  left  for  any  considerable  dis- 
tance.    We  had  trailed  our  way  to  an  isthmus  of  land, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  157 

enclosed  by  two  impassable  streams,  shooting  in 
rugged  wild  channels.  To  think  of  crossing  them 
was  sheer  madness.  Goritz  and  Hopkins  had 
actually  advanced  a  little  way  on  the  bridge,  strain- 
ing their  eyes  to  catch  some  further  intimations  of 
the  delectable  country  we  now  believed  would  be 
attained  were  we  once  over  this  inscrutable  fissure. 
The  daylight,  when  the  sun  was  highest  and 
easterly,  was  now  short,  and  in  the  mist- 
encumbered  land,  in  the  cloud-swept  skies,  that 
light  was  almost  eclipsed.  Everything  contributed 
to  our  uncertainty  and  danger. 

We  made  ready  for  the  start.  We  consumed 
every  scrap  of  food,  divested  ourselves  of  unneces- 
sary outer  clothing,  which  had  already  become 
insufferably  warm  — kamiks,  nanookis,  kooletah — 
packed  our  ammunition  on  our  breasts,  reversed 
and  strapped  our  guns  on  our  backs  (the  Professor 
added  to  his  burden  a  pot  and  a  fryingpan),  tucked 
away  our  matches,  chewed  the  last  tea  leaves  our 
cannister  afforded,  and  with  a  few  chocolate  cakes 
in  our  pockets  went  down  the  steps, 

"*  *  *  with  a  heart  for  any  fate.'' 

I  was  indeed  sick;  exertion  pained  me,  and  a 
nauseating  weariness  threatened  at  moments  to 
rob  me  of  consciousness.  The  two  poor  dogs  which 
had  escaped  the  extremity  of  our  needs,  less  through 
mercy  than  through  revulsion,  were  turned  loose. 
Yet  as  we  went  down  the  ledges  to  the  brink,  I  saw 
them  chasing  us.  Goritz  roped  us  together  again, 
gave  a  few  orders  as  to  signals,  and  ordered  the 
descent. 

We  went  a  tatons,  literally  on  all  fours;  Goritz 
first,  then  the  Professor,  then  myself,  then  Hopkins. 
As  we  drew  near  to  the  ominous  edge,  and  felt  our 
way  over  the  first  steps  of  the  stony  crossing  it 
required  all  my  strength  of  will  to  draw  my  legs 


158  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

after  my  groping  hands.  At  first  it  presented  a 
tolerable  pathway,  flat,  narrow,  but  sloping  dan- 
gerously to  either  side,  slippery  from  the  constant 
rain  that  fell  from  the  saturated  air.  We  silently 
pushed  on,  Goritz  by  agreement  stopping  every 
thirty  counts  (seconds),  and  resting  five.  Gradu- 
ally the  path  contracted  and,  in  about  thirty  feet, 
became  a  sharp  backbone  over  whose  sides  our  legs 
dangled  in  the  constantly  steaming  vault.  It  was 
warm  and  almost  stifling  at  intervals  and  then  came 
relief  in  the  shape  of  whirling  gusts  of  wind,  which 
however  were  disconcerting,  and  made  our  precari- 
ous balance  still  more  uncertain. 

We  had  probably  proceeded  fifty  feet  in  all,  when 
a  blackness  shot  through  with  red  darts  came  before 
my  eyes;  I  reeled  slightly  and  dropped  forward, 
instinctively  clutching  the  wet  rock  and  jerking  the 
rope  that  bound  me  to  the  Professor.  The  Pro- 
fessor in  turn  pulled  on  Goritz,  and  our  thin  line 
halted.  It  was  arduous  work  for  the  Professor, 
whose  wrist  was  still  aching. 

A  detonation  thundered  far  away  below  us.  The 
spasm  passed;  I  pulled  the  rope,  the  Professor 
passed  the  signal,  and  we  resumed  our  insect-like 
progress.  Singular  that,  as  I  moved  again,  the 
thought  of  Dante  and  Virgil  crossing  the  bridge 
over  the  tenth  circle,  as  illustrated  by  Dore,  rose 
distinctly,  clear,  indubitable,  in  front  of  me.  It 
even  seemed  possible  for  me  to  define  the  pagina- 
tion of  the  leaf  I  actually  saw.  This  strange  re- 
suscitated impression  kept  me  conscious. 

On,  on;  the  arete  remained  unchanged;  our 
progress  was  encouraging;  I  seemed  cognizant  of  a 
deeper  gloom;  it  was  the  opposite  wall.  We  had 
reached  it.  Alas!  It  rose  above  our  heads  and 
must  be  scaled!  Goritz  pulled  the  rope,  the  signal 
ran  through  the  file  and  we  halted  again.  The 
path  broadened  now,  as  at  its  eastern  end,  and  our 


# 


m 


"^fe^ft:' 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  159 

legs  were  relieved  from  the  irksome  straddle  they 
had  been  subjected  to.  It  was  a  welcome  pause  to 
me.  I  knew  that  the  last  scrap  of  effort  I  was 
capable  of  was  needed  now,  if  some  vertical  wet 
wall  was  to  be  surmounted  in  that  almost  impene- 
trable blackness. 

In  about  fifteen  minutes  the  tug  came  again,  and 
we  knew  Goritz  had  solved  some  problem  of  the 
ascent  confronting  us.  I  heard  him  calling  back, 
and  the  Professor  answering.  Then  I  found  myself 
in  this  situation;  on  a  fairly  wide  platform  against 
a  broken  wall  and  up  it  I  heard  the  scratching  exer- 
tion of  the  Professor  as  he  seemed  to  be  bodily 
pulled  up  the  ragged  face.  The  constantly  falling 
rain  had  ceased.  But  as  the  Professor  rose,  I  felt 
he  was  no  longer  attached  to  me.  I  drew  in  the 
rope  before  me  and  came  to  its  loose  end.  We 
were  separated!  Aghast,  I  was  unable  to  speak, 
but  my  outstretched  arms  encountered  Hopkins. 

"Hopkins,  Hopkins,"  I  hoarsely  whispered,  "the 
rope  has  parted.     We  are  alone!" 

"Don't  worry,"  replied  that  extraordinary  man, 
"we  couldn't  be  lonelier  than  we  have  been.  This 
solitude  is  the  most  unbroken  bit  of  isolation  I  ever 
walked  into.  Of  course  we're  separated.  This 
interesting  masonry  we've  struck  isn't  very  well 
constructed.  It  isn't  plumb.  It  hangs  out  a 
leetle  above.  Goritz  found  it  out,  uncoiled  himself, 
got  to  the  top,  told  the  Professor  to  drop  you  and 
me,  and  is  now  engaged  in  hoisting  that  scientific 
encyclopedia  up  to  bliss  and  safety.  We  won't 
stay  dropped  long.  We're  to  go  the  same  way,  and 
really,  admirably  adapted  for  concealment  of  an 
escaped  felon  as  is  this  retreat,  honest  men  could 
afford  to  dispense  with  its  protection." 

I  sometimes  thought  that  when  Hopkins  talked 
this  way  on  the  verge  of  destruction  he  was  a  little 
demented  from  fear.     Perhaps  I  wronged  him. 


160  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"But  say,  Erickson,  you're  not  well,  old  fellow." 

I  had  fallen  against  him;  another  surge  of  giddi- 
ness and  harsh  pains  lacerating  my  joints  had  over- 
come me.  Then  I  was  struck  by  a  rope  end;  it 
had  descended  from  above.  Understanding  it  all 
now,  and  clutching  at  the  hope  of  deliverance  from 
the  terrors  around  us,  I  roused  myself. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Goritz  shouting,  "Tie  up." 
And  then  Hopkins  replying,  "All  right!  Alfred  is  a 
little  out  of  sorts.  He  can't  help  you  much. 
When  I  say,  pull  together." 

Hopkins  unloosed  our  connection,  firmly  fastened 
me  to  the  rope  and,  indicating  my  upward  course, 
telling  me  to  "brace  up,"  and  that  it  was  the  last 
lap,  pushed  me  up  a  declivity  bristling  with  sharp 
projections.  For  the  first  time  I  saw  a  dim  light 
filtering  from  above.  I  did  not  attempt  to  look 
upward.  The  pull  came,  and  I  scrambled  w^eakly 
forward.  Again  the  dark,  red-riven  cloud  over- 
whelmed me,  my  limbs  seemed  disjointed;  a  pic- 
ture of  home,  I  thought,  filled  my  eyes;  a  blow  on 
my  head,  then  a  vast  detachment  as  if  I  were  falling 
through  space  succeeded,  and  I  lost  consciousness. 

And  when  I  awoke!  Ah!  Mr.  Link  I  have  since 
often  believed  that  our  first  glimpse  of  heaven  may 
be  like  the  vision  of  loveliness  that  surrounded  me 
when  slowly  my  eyes  took  on  their  functions,  and 
my  head  cleared,  and  rational  observation  again 
began.  My  pains,  too,  had  for  the  instant  sub- 
sided. I  felt  almost  disembodied,  as  if  indeed  in 
some  spiritual  trance  I  had  reached  the  other  side 
of  death. 

I  was  lying  in  deep  grass  on  a  hillside,  bathed  in 
light;  my  friends  around  me — No,  Hopkins  was 
not  there.  I  noted  that.  Backward  the  steaming 
wall  of  vapor  was  lit  with  a  soft  radiance,  and  re- 
sembled an  ever-changing  cloud  land.  Above,  the 
sky  was  clear  and  blue;   the  distance  was  a  revela- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  161 

tion  of  beauty,  ponds  and  lakes  separated  by  low 
hills,  whose  summits  held  coppices  of  trees  and 
shrubs,  sparkled  and  shone  in  far  flung  chains  and 
groups,  and  below,  in  a  softly  radiant  vale,  the 
slim,  long  outline  of  a  little  lakelet,  embosomed  in 
tall,  waving  reeds  or  grasses,  like  some  titanic  jewel, 
gleamed,  crystalline  and  keen. 

Ducks  were  swimming  on  its  surface,  and  skim- 
ming with  beating  wings  its  tiny  waves.  Herons 
or  cranes  were  wading  in  the  sedges  on  its  shores, 
and  a  stirring  and  noisy  aquatic  bird  life  every- 
where about  it,  made  it  vocal  and  animated.  Far 
away  a  strange,  soft  light  burned  in  the  heaven,  and 
for  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  another  sun  had  re- 
placed the  diurnal  traveler  of  the  skies. 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Crocodilo-Python 

But  nature  reasserted  its  importunities,  and 
hunger  gnawed  my  vitals.  In  a  chapter  of  Admiral 
Peary's  book,  "Over  the  Great  Ice,"  is  a  thrilling 
episode  which  describes  his  own  and  Astrum's, 
hunger  before  they  slew  the  musk  ox  near  Inde- 
pendence Bay,  Greenland,  and  the  ferocity,  almost, 
with  which  they  feasted  on  the  raw  meat.  I  once 
thought  that  the  story  had  been  given  a  half 
threatrical  exaggeration.  Now  I  know  it  was 
truthful  enough.  My  companions  were  also  weak 
and  prostrated.  I  now  saw  clearly  their  thin, 
pinched  features,  the  natureless  stare  of  their  eyes, 
the  flaccid,  hopeless  flutter  of  their  hands.  I  had 
not  realized  how  near  we  had  been  to  dropping  dead 
in  our  tracks. 

There  was  a  shot — another,  then — another. 
"God  be  thanked,"  muttered  Goritz,  and  the  Pro- 
fessor mechanically  rose  to  his  unsteady  feet,  and 
shaded  his  eyes,  looking  down  the  hillside. 

"He's  coming,  and  his  hands  are  full,"  at  length 
he  said,  and  sank  to  the  ground. 

It  seemed  an  eternity  before  the  tall  figure  of  the 
Yankee  brushed  through  the  grass,  and  flung  the 
dead  bodies  of  three  wild  geese  among  us. 

Few  or  none  who  have  not  known  the  extremity  of 
hunger  can  understand  how,  as  Mikkelsen  expresses 
it,    "one's  whole   consciousness    becomes   concen- 

162 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  163 

trated  into  one  importunate  demand  for  food — food 
— food."  And  do  you  remember,  if  you  read  it, 
how  Mikkelsen  and  Iversen  set  up  the  tins  of  the 
cache  at  Schnauder's  Island  in  a  row,  to  feast  their 
eyes  on  them,  and  then,  after  all,  came  that 
"feverish  race  with  death — the  grim  death  of 
hunger"? 

Our  state  was  not  as  desperate,  but  perhaps  we 
were  not  such  hardened  and  strong  men.  It  was 
not  long  before  a  fire  made  of  branches  and  twigs 
and  grass  was  burning  merrily,  and  though  there 
was  nothing  but  water  to  drink,  and  there  were  no 
condiments — no  salt  or  pepper,  no  bread  or  biscuits, 
we  devoured  the  fried  duck  with  a  rapture  no  words 
can  properly  do  justice  to.  It  was  not  enough. 
Hopkins  must  go  again  and  again.  But  the  larder 
furnished  us  in  these  new,  hospitable  surroundings 
was  inexhaustible.  We  wondered  whether  the 
sound  of  a  gunshot  had  ever  been  heard  here;  the 
birds  were  simply  curious,  not  frightened,  and  only 
interrupted  their  play  or  avocation  with  a  momen- 
tary and  short  flight. 

We  moved  forward  from  our  first  resting  place 
and  encamped  under  the  leafy  covering  of  a  beauti- 
ful, narrow,  silver-leaved  tree,  that  the  Professor 
told  us  was  a  relative  of  that  ornament  of  parks  and 
pleasure  grounds  in  Europe  and  America,  the 
Anastatica  syriachum.  We  called  our  camp  Res- 
toration. Hopkins  suggested  Emptiness  as  a  name, 
for  several  reasons,  because  of  our  unappeasable 
appetites  and  because  in  it,  besides  ourselves,  our 
guns,  a  few  cooking  vessels  (to  be  exact,  just  a  pot 
and  a  fryingpan)  the  rope  we  carried,  and  our  few 
instruments,  our  ammunition  and  our  matches, 
there  were  none  of  the  appurtenances  that  are 
associated  with  the  name  of  camp.  But  the  name 
Restoration  pleased  us  better,  for  here  were  we 
filled  with  a  wonderful  animation  of  expectancy, 


164  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

here  our  strength  had  been  fully  restored,  here  we 
had  become  joyful  beyond  estimation,  the  Professor 
had  resumed  his  alacrity  of  mind,  and  once  more 
we  all  embarked  on  the  sea  of  fabulous  imagining. 
It  was  altogether  wonderful.  Where  were  we? 
What  was  the  meaning  of  this  temperate  charm  of 
climate?  Whence  came  this  broad  illumination 
when  the  sun  had  set? 

The  first  moments  of  our  mere  animal  restoration 
passed,  then  a  delicious  weariness  overcame  us  as  we 
surrendered  to  the  mirthful  spirit  of  surprise  and 
admiration,  and  to  the  curative  properties  of  fried 
or  boiled  duck.  Around  us  stretched  a  magnificent 
country,  which  bore  the  aspect  of  the  sylvan  loneli- 
ness of  the  lakeland  of  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin 
and  Canada,  though  more  undulating  or  hilly.  The 
wall  of  steam  and  cloud  behind  us,  occasionally 
glowing  dully  with  the  flame  of  its  intermittent 
explosions,  extended  north  and  south,  or  was  lost 
in  the  pearly  exhalations  of  the  distance. 

It  formed  an  inexhaustible  source  of  rain,  for,  as 
the  east  winds  prevailed,  the  mists  swept  over  this 
aquitanian  land  in  showers,  or,  if  the  west  wind,  it 
was  rolled  away  in  thunderous  glory  to  deluge  that 
steep,  barren  zone  we  had  descended,  from  Krocker 
Land  Rim,  and,  beyond  the  Rim,  it  fell  again  in 
snow.  The  Professor,  boastful  now,  and  Goritz 
calmly  exultant,  arranged  the  fortunes  we  were 
about  to  meet  in  pleasing  colors.  To  listen  to 
them  as  Hopkins  and  I  lay  on  our  backs  in  the 
fragrant  grass,  starred  with  white  and  blue  blos- 
soms, was  like  the  recital  of  a  fairy  story,  a  legend 
of  miracles  and  marvels. 

The  Professor  took  up  the  strain  in  this  wise: 

"Here  is  the  most  wonderful  illustration  of  Per- 
petual Motion.  The  precipitation  of  the  Arctic 
Sea  falls  on  this  land  in  rain,  outside  of  it  in  snow. 
The  rain  flows  down  the  rivers  of  the  arid  slope 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  165 

under  Krocker  Land  Rim,  is  emptied  into  the 
heated  or  inflamed  bowels  of  the  earth,  uncovered 
by  the  huge  meridional  crevice,  and  returned  as 
steam  to  be  again  thrown  down,  evaporated  and 
reprecipitated  in  an  endless  chain  of  supreme 
magnitude. 

"And,  gentlemen,  we  have  entered  the  polar 
depression  of  which  you  were  so  scornfully  incredu- 
lous. We  have  already  fallen  two  thousand  feet 
below  the  mean  level  of  the  earth.  This  is  a  tem- 
perate region,  with  symptoms  of  subtropical  or  even 
perhaps  tropical  life  I  believe  we  shall  discover  a 
series  of  successive  gigantic  steps,  each  a  recession 
within  the  crust  of  the  earth,  like  continental 
amphitheatrical  terraces,  ancl  at  the  Center — " 

"What?"  gurgled  Hopkins. 

"Ah!   Mr.  Hopkins,  what  indeed." 

But  before  the  Professor  could  frame  his  answer 
to  the  question,  Goritz,  whose  reticence  had  now 
succumbed  to  the  wonders  of  our  experience  had 
seized  the  thread  of  the  lecture.  He  would  outdo 
the  Professor  in  prophecies,  with  a  merry  fling  or 
soaring  of  imagination  that  made  that  cheerful 
scientist  dubious  or  irritated.  I  think  he  rather 
resented  this  unexpected,  half  satirical  participa- 
tion in  the  monopoly  of  his  professional  vaticina- 
tions. 

"I'll  tell  you  what,  Hopkins,"  would  continue 
Goritz  smilingly,  with  a  musical  intonation  that 
accorded  with  the  serenity  of  our  surroundings,  "it 
will  be  a  City  of  Gold — houses  of  gold,  golden 
chariots,  golden  furniture.  We  can  break  off"  the 
legs  and  arms  of  the  chairs  and  tables,  knock  down 
the  doors,  rip  up  the  flagging,  and  put  up  a  stack 
of  gold  bric-a-brac  that  will  keep  us  forever. 
We'll  go  back,  bring  in  the  engineers,  bridge  that 
gulf,  and  railroad  the  metropolis  to  the  shore,  ship 
the  whole  thing  to  America   and  then — (by  this 


166  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

time  Hopkins  would  be  pummeling  me  "/o  sit  up 
and  take  notice")  we'll  come  back,  seize  the  mines 
and  fetch  the  Millenium  back  to  the  world;  no 
more  poor,  no  begging,  no  charities,  just  universal 
peace  and  happiness!" 

"May  be,"  Hopkins  would  grunt  as  he  knocked 
me  flat  again,  and  fell  himself  face  forward  to  the 
ground,  "may  be,  but  Pujo  and  the  Democratic 
Congress  will  catch  you,  if  you  don't  watch  out. 
Why  my  dear,  unsophisticated  friend,  if  you  gave 
it  away,  and  let  people  know  you  had  a  claim  on  the 
original,  inexhaustible  goldbrick  of  the  Universe, 
the  crowd  up  here  would  tilt  the  earth  over,  and  set 
it  rolling  the  wrong  way.     And  then — WHAT?" 

So  we  often  joked  and  laughed  together  in  the 
halcyon  days  that  restored  our  strength  and  health. 
But  the  fit  of  mere  whimsical  jubilation  soon  came 
to  an  end.  Our  exploits  were  only  begun,  and 
already  two  serious  wonders  attracted  our  attention 
and  brought  us  in  contact  with  an  amazing  phe- 
nomenon. The  first'was  the  unbroken  illumination, 
the  measureless  day!  The  sun  itself  hardly  raised 
its  red  disk  above  the  horizon  now.  We  knew  that 
the  six  months'  night  was  fast  approaching,  outside 
of  this  enchanted  bowl,  and  yet  within  its  magic 
circle  the  light  remained,  and  there  were  no  alterna- 
tions of  day  and  night.  A  varying  light  indeed,  as 
there  were  clear  or  cloudy  skies,  but  still  the  sen- 
sible, broad  day.  What  did  this  mean?  What 
anomaly  of  natural  philosophy,  of  physics,  of 
astronomy,  could  be  invoked  to  explain  this  aber- 
ration? 

And  the  second  was  the  Sleep  of  Vegetation. 
The  trees  went  to  sleep,  the  flowers  too.  The 
leaves  of  the  trees  turned  upward,  and  clasped  the 
twigs  and  branches,  exposing  their  dull  brown 
under  surfaces  only,  and  the  sepals  and  petals  of 
the  flowers  did   the  same.     Shielded   behind   the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  167 

impervious  dark  film  of  the  thickened  integument, 
the  green  upper  surfaces  remained  as  it  were 
closed;  a  voluntary  recuperation  that  was  novel 
enough.  The  Professor  was  enraptured,  and  he 
discovered  that  the  breathing  pores  (stomata), 
usually  in  plants  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaf,  were 
here  above,  that  too  there  was  no  prevalent  cus- 
tom, so  to  speak,  among  the  plants,  in  their 
"going  to  sleep."  One  plant  would  be  thus  sleep- 
ing alongside  of  a  wide-awake  neighbor.  But  he 
did  note  a  kind  of  periodicity,  in  opening  and 
closing,  as  Pfeffer  has  done  in  plants  kept 
constantly  in  the  dark.  And  it  seemed  to  all  of  us 
that  the  colors  were  both  paler  and  deeper;  deeper 
in  the  reds  and  purples,  paler  in  the  greens  and 
yellows. 

But  that  artificial  sun  that  towards  the  west 
illumined  the  zenith,  an  endless  fixed  lamp  set  in  the 
sky,  immovable  above  the  earth?  What  was  that? 
Towards  it  we  hastened,  now  almost  free  of  loads, 
and  free  of  cares,  immersed  in  a  reckless  curiosity, 
feeling  the  wantonness  of  a  luxurious  and  marvel- 
bringing  pastime. 

It  grew  colder,  showing  that  the  outside  changes 
afTected  the  depressed  area,  but  the  phantom  light 
in  the  west  was  also  a  source  of  heat,  and  if  we  were 
to  drop  down  further  within  lower  craters,  the 
"static  heat  of  the  earth,"  the  Professor  averred, 
would  "increasingly  raise  the  temperature." 

Our  meals  of  bird  became  monotonous,  but 
though  we  saw  fish  in  the  lakes,  we  could  not  catch 
them.  Our  instruments,  matches,  ammunition, 
guns,  and  the  indispensable  pot  and  fryingpan,  a 
few  odds  and  ends  in  our  pockets  and  some  vestiges 
of  other  commodities  in  our  packs  made  up  our 
possessions.  A  change  of  under  clothing  we  had 
vouchsafed  ourselves,  before  we  abandoned  the 
sledge,  and  an  under  dress  too  of  serge,  so  that, 


168  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

though  our  skins  and  furs  were  thrown  aside,  "we 
might  be  able,"  as  Hopkins  said,  "to  meet  the  ladies 
of  El  Dorado  without  a  blush." 

The  scenes  around  us,  as  we  pushed  westward, 
repeated  themselves  with  inconspicuous  changes, 
but  we  would  often  enter  into  pictorial  compositions 
that  exhaled  an  artistic  beauty  quite  incomparable. 
It  was  after  a  ten  hour  tramp  over  the  interminable 
savannahs,  that  the  Professor,  noting  a  cliffside,  a 
unique  feature,  towards  the  north,  we  directed  our 
steps  thither.  Then  we  encountered  a  picture  that 
swayed  us  by  its  loveliness,  and  we  ran  into  a  zoo- 
logical revelation  also,  that  made  our  hair  stand  on 
end,  so  that  the  emotional  antipodes  thus  experi- 
enced supplied  us  with  some  exciting  themes  for 
conversation. 

We  first  stood  at  the  beginning  of  a  valley  sloping 
from  us  with  wide,  graceful  reaches.  It  lay  be- 
tween two  series  of  hills,  separated  by  minor 
valleys,  whose  contributions  of  water,  in  tree  or 
bush-lined  brooks,  were  added  to  the  meandering 
river  that  subjugated  all  other  impressions  in  its 
stately  movement  towards  a  far  distant  lake.  This 
latter  formed  a  great  mirror  of  light  on  the  horizon. 
The  hills  were  much  more  deeply  wooded  than  any 
we  had  passed,  indeed  the  country  assumed  a  new 
phase,  and  the  languid  inclines  and  faintly  expostu- 
lating elevations  here  were  replaced  by  more  boulders 
and  a  piedmont-like  picturesqueness. 

And  yet  there  dwelt  in  the  picture  a  gentleness, 
an  inviting  softness  of  contour  that  was  ingratiat- 
ing, while  the  banked  trees,  the  occasional  escarp- 
ments of  glistening  rock,  and  that  luminous,  dis- 
tant haze  over  the  faraway  lake  tended  to  add 
strength  and  mystery.  It  was  almost,  by  our 
chronometers,  mid-day  when  we  entered  this 
delightful  vale.  Dark  evergreens  added  a  tonic 
charm  to  the  coloring,  and  above  us,  scoring  the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  169 

blue,  were  ranged  radiating  white  ribs  of  compacted 
cumulus. 

We  had  clambered  up  on  the  ledges  of  a  rock 
exposure,  encumbered  at  its  base  by  huge,  confused 
fragments,  and  edged  at  its  summit  by  the  bushy 
fortress  of  a  white  flowered  low  tree  like  a  wild 
cherry.  The  Anastatica{}) ,  so  abundant  in  the 
country  we  had  passed  over,  had  disappeared,  and 
with  it,  we  surmised,  that  mirific  population  of 
cranes,  herons,  geese,  and  ducks  that  made  the 
enchained  lakes  vocal  with  pipings,  screams,  haloos, 
and  bugle  calls. 

"Looks  good  to  me,"  exclaimed  Hopkins. 
"Yes,"  I  said,  "if  we  could  take  that  picture  with  us 
back  to  New  York  on  a  canvas  or  a  film,  or  a  plate, 
we'd  have  'em  guessing.  It's  a  marvel.  Pretty 
hard  to  believe  we're  at  north  latitude  84°.  That's 
about  it.  Professor?" 

"84°,  50',  5","  replied  the  Professor  senten- 
tiously,  as  he  applied  his  lens  and  his  eyes  to  a 
scrap  of  stone. 

"New  York?"  snorted  Goritz.  "You  surely 
don't  ask  for  anything  better  than  this.  This  is 
Eden."  It  certainly  seemed  so,  and  while  Hopkins 
contented  himself  with  the  comment  that  he  hadn't 
noticed  any  snakes  about,  we  turned  attentive  ears 
to  the  Professor,  who  by  this  time  had  completed 
his  enthralled  study  of  the  glittering  schist  in  his 
hand. 

"Azoic  rocks,"  he  cried,  his  becoming  smile 
mantling  his  face,  his  red,  prominent  ears  and  his 
flaring  hair  making  a  droll  combination.  "Very 
early  rocks;  the  Grenville  Series  beyond  doubt, 
as  named  by  the  Canadian  geologists;  the  first 
solidifications  of  the  earth's  crust,  perhaps  schists, 
granites  and  limestones,  though  here  schists  with 
pegmatite  veins.  An  ancient  circular  axis  sur- 
rounding a  circular  depression  that  has  never  been 


170  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

covered  by  the  later  oceans.  Gentlemen,  we  are 
probably  now  situated  on  the  one  point  of  the  earth 
wherein  the  processes  of  evolution  have  never 
played  any  role,  because  marine  life  has  never  ex- 
isted within  it,  and  the  processes  of  derivation 
which  have  supplied  the  dry  land  with  their  mam- 
malian fauna  from  the  animals  of  the  sea  have  been 
totally  excluded,  unless — unless — ,"  the  judicial 
introspection  and  litigation  which  the  Professor 
assumed  at  such  critical  points  in  his  scientific 
homilies  were  always  diverting,  "unless  the  barrier 
had  been  broken  at  some  point  and  the  surrounding 
ocean  admitted,  just  as  Walcott  has  surmised 
may  have  been  the  case  with  the  western  protaxes 
of  North  America,  when  the  pre-Cambrian  seas 
introduced  their  life  into  the  interior  basin  of  the 
continent.  We  shall  see,  however;  the  sedimen- 
tary rocks  of  the  inner  circles  (It  was  quite  reas- 
suring to  observe  the  Professor's  stalwart  certainty 
about  everything)  will  reveal  that.  Even  had  no 
such  invasion  been  permitted,  life,  would  have 
reached  this  isolated  nucleus  through  the  flight  and 
migration  of  birds  who  might  readily  enough,  as 
pointed  out  by  Darwin,  Wallace,  Lancaster,  Leidy 
and  others,  have  carried  the  embryos  of  fish,  the 
shells  of  molluscs  and  the  larvae  and  bodies  of 
insects  hither,  and  the  winds  themselves  may  have 
assisted  in  this  involuntary  transit.  The  injection 
of  seeds  might  have  taken  place  in  all  sorts  of  ways. 
So  far,  you  will  observe  that  the  faunal  features,  as 
might  be  expected,  are  very  scanty,  and  true  mam- 
mals are  absent.  The  zoological  peculiarities  of 
this  paleolithic  bowl  are  absolutely  unique.  As  a 
contribution  to  biological  science  our  results 
promise  to  assume  important  proportions." 

Under  the  stimulus  of  this  flattering  encourage- 
ment we  resumed  our  way,  following  the  banks  of 
the  beautiful  river  to  that  remote  splendor,  the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  171 

lake  on  the  horizon,  which  seemed  a  fairy  sea, 
where  indeed  might  float  argosies  of  an  indigenous 
people  which  had  been  imprisoned  in  this  inverted 
earth  cone  since  human  occupation  of  our  earth 
began. 

And  it  soon  became  apparent  that  we  were  again 
rapidly  descending,  a  transition  indicated  by  in- 
creasing warmth  and  the  changed  gradient  of  the 
river  which  was  flowing  rapidly,  more  rapidly, 
between  thickset,  outstretched  arms  of  alder-like 
trees.  Our  interest  was  intense.  The  utter,  incal- 
culable strangeness  of  it  all  kept  our  nerves  strung 
to  an  extreme  tension.  Sometimes  we  were  simul- 
taneously arrested  by  an  overpowering  mental 
revolt  against  it,  as  though  we  felt  we  had  lost  our 
senses,  or  as  though  some  trauma  had  been  inflicted 
on  our  brain,  and  then  we  stood  staring,  in  absolute 
stupefaction.  For  all  this  was  not  simply  new,  it 
was  superbly  beautiful. 

"Every  way  we're  to  the  good,"  cried  Hopkins. 
"We're  walking  right  into  a  Safe  Deposit  that 
would  make  Rockefeller  or  Rothschild  coil  up  in  a 
colic  of  undisguised  despair.  That,  in  the  first 
place.  Then,  we're  mighty  comfortable,  well  fed, 
careless  and  improving.  That  counts  in  the  second 
place.  And  thirdly,  if  we  get  back  to  sanitary 
plumbing,  carved  food,  and  flats,  we'll  be  able  to 
put  up  a  story  that  will  keep  the  people — I  mean 
everybody — gasping,  and  there  won't  be  enough 
presses  to  print  it,  enough  woodpulp  to  print  it  on, 
and  I  assume  it's  more  than  likely  that  we'll  pre- 
cipitate, as  they  say,  the  worst  panic  ever  known, 
because  nobody  will  be  able  to  work  until  they've 
finished  the  story,  and  from  appearances  I  think  we 
could  a  tale  unfold  that  might  cover  a  thousand  or 
more  pages.  Our  copyright  will  be  worth  a  king's 
ransom." 

"But  they  won't  read  it  because  they  won't 


172  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

believe  it,"  I  said.  "We'll  be  classed  with  Mun- 
chausen and  old  Doc.  Cook,  Symmes  and  Sinbad." 

"Won't  believe  it?"  exploded  Hopkins.  "Won't 
we  show  em?  The  Professor  will  rattle  oflf  the  new 
species,  and  how  about  our  buying  out  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington,  and  running  the  country  just 
free  of  expense  a  few  days,  say  for  a  week,  to  prove 
it?  That  will  be  convincing,  I  undertake  to  say. 
And  then  the  pictures.  The  camera's  working 
yet,  and  there  are  a  dozen  or  so  of  film  rolls.  But 
don't  worry.  We'll  be  the  biggest  thing  on  the  foot- 
stool, and  then — some.  Christopher  has  had  a  fair 
show,  in  fact  he's  been  rather  spoilt,  but  he'll  have 
every  reason  to  be  glad  he's  out  of  sight  when  we 
get  there.  Why  really  it's  hard  to  understand  what 
won't  happen." 

At  that  we  all  laughed,  and  that  relief  made  us 
serious  again,  and  with  eyes  open,  pencils  scrib- 
bling, and  an  occasional  click  of  the  camera  (Hop- 
kins was  our  photographer)  we  hastened  down  the 
now  somewhat  contracting  valley.  An  elbow  of 
land  pushed  out  and  diverted  the  stream  and  on  this 
point,  where  the  river  turned,  swerving  back  into  its 
first  course,  and  where  an  expanse  of  yellow  sand 
and  pebbles  furnished  an  open  space  from  which  the 
lake,  the  receding  valley  behind  us,  a  gorge  before 
us,  the  open  sky,  and  the  encroaching  flanks  of 
higher  hills  were  all  visible,  we  halted. 

Hopkins  seized  the  opportunity  for  a  new  flight 
of  speculation. 

"Do  you  know,"  and  the  shadow  of  a  real  em- 
barrassment on  his  face  fixed  our  attention,  "I've 
been  wondering  who  is  to  own  this  bailiwick.  Of 
course  we'll  meet  the  native  residents  sooner  or 
later — their  shyness  is  a  little  unaccountable  as  it 
is — but  you  don't  imagine  for  a  moment  that  the 
first  class  national  hogs  of  Europe  would  let  a 
promising   domain    like    this   go   unappropriated? 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  173 

Not  much.  Those  disinterested  potentates  would 
be  up  here  before  you  could  say  Jack  Robinson  to 
prove  how  necessary  it  was  for  the  peace  of  the 
world  to  cut  it  up  at  once.  Gentlemen,  this  is  an 
international  question,  and  we're  the  only  men  who 
have  a  right  to  settle  it.     What  do  you  say?" 

"Oh,  my  portion  goes  to  Denmark,"  chuckled 
Goritz. 

"Mine  too,"  I  added. 

"I  owe  allegiance  to  Norway,"  reminded  the 
Professor. 

"Funny — how  clannish  you  are,"  continued 
Hopkins.  "You're  all  as  good  as  Americans,  and 
you  speak  English.  You've  lived  in  the  United 
States,  and  you  know,  way  down  in  your  boots,  that 
she's  the  Hope  of  the  whole  earth;  the  only  thing 
just  now  visible  in  the  shape  of  government  that 
cares  two  coppers  for  the  under  dog.  Ain't  that 
so?  Well  I'll  tell  yer,"  and  Hopkins  squinted, 
drawled,  and  put  his  long  index  on  the  side  of  his 
very  presentable  nose,  "I'll  tell  yer.  We'll  give 
the  Edenites  a  square  deal,  and  let  them  decide. 
You  see  we  can  each  take  the  stump  for  our  own 
country,  and  then  give  them  the  choice  at  a  general 
Primary  Election." 

"Will  you  let  the  ladies  vote?''  I  asked  innocently. 

"Why  not?  Certainly.  Ladies  first,"  smiled 
back  the  gallant  Yankee. 

"Well  then,"  I  triumphantly  concluded,  "as  they 
can't  understand  us,  they'll  of  course,  after  the 
manner  of  their  sex,  be  guided  by  LOOKS,  and — 
America  wins." 

We  shouted  at  Hopkins'  discomfiture.  He  cer- 
tainly looked  nonplussed  and  aggrieved.  He  was 
shaping  a  retort,  and  his  mouth  had  already  formed 
the  words  "See  here,  Erickson;  don't  you  fool 
yourself — "  when  there  was  a  movement  on  the 
opposite  bank.     Almost  instantly  Hopkins'  quick 


174  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

eye  was  diverted,  and  his  arm  shot  forward,  indicat- 
ing the  intrusion,  while  he  whispered  in  the  stage- 
struck  style,  ''Look,  look!" 

We  turned  as  one  man.  Opposite,  thrusting 
their  heads  out  of  the  foliage  of  the  bank,  and  reveal- 
ing too  the  front  quarters  of  their  bodies  were  four 
wild  pigs,  a  hog,  a  sow  and  two  youngsters.  The 
adult  animals  were  of  great  size,  with  portentous 
mouths  and  snouts,  flat  cheek  protrusions,  hairy, 
pointed  ears,  and  the  animals  bore  two  upturned 
involuted  tooth  horns  or  tusks  on  each  side  of  their 
upper  and  lower  jaws.  The  animals  were  black, 
their  bodies  covered  with  coarse,  spiny  short  hair, 
bristling  into  a  mane  at  the  neck  and  their  small, 
fiery  eyes  snapped  viciously.  They  were  large 
brutes,  stout,  muscular,  possessed  of  a  strange 
hollow  grunt  that  rumbled  ominously  inside  their 
heads  for  a  while,  and  then  became  suddenly 
audible  as  a  terrifying,  snorting  squeal.  It  was  the 
oddest,  most  unaccountable  animal  noise  any  of 
us  had  ever  heard.  But  the  Professor  com- 
placently informed  us  that  the  creatures  were  un- 
doubtedly related  to  the  Forest  Pig — Hylochoerus 
meinertz  hageni — of  British  East  Africa,  and  that 
their  study  would  add  a  new  chapter  to  natural 
history,  while  the  skins  of  the  monsters  would  be 
eagerly  competed  for  by  the  museums  of  the  world. 

Hopkins  dismissed  this  with  a  wave  of  his  hand, 
urging  the  antecedent  considerations  of  pork  chops, 
fresh  ham,  and  sausage.  The  subjects  of  this 
colloquy  remained,  however,  undisturbed.  Had 
we  shot  them  there  was  no  discoverable  way  in  our 
position  at  the  time  to  secure  their  bodies,  and  from 
the  gastronomic  point  of  view  the  Professor  ques- 
tioned their  importance. 

The  pigs  watched  us  nervously  for  a  short  time, 
then  they  grunted  reflectively;  their  whitish-green 
eyes  were  almost  distended  in  excitement  and  shone 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  175 

with  a  blue  light.  But  with  a  raised  arm,  a  thrown 
pebble,  and  a  shout  from  Goritz  they  flew  off,  crash- 
ing among  the  undergrowth  and  easily  traceable  in 
in  their  flight  down  the  hillside  by  the  wake  of 
violently  agitated  shrubbery  and  herbs. 

"An  interesting  encounter,"  remarked  the  Pro- 
fessor. "Its  congener  is  found  today  over  the 
slopes  of  Mt.  Kenia  at  a  high  altitude,  where  the 
jungle  and  the  forest  meet,  supposed  by  Akely  to 
follow  the  trail  of  the  elephant,  and  addicted  to  an 
inexplicable  habit  of  scraping  together  leaves  and 
grasses  which  it  forms  into  diminutive  mounds. 
We  are  coming  into  a  warmer  region,  the  increasing 
prevalence  of  acacia  and  eucalyptus-like  trees,  the 
occasional  pitch  pine,  and  something  like  an  ever- 
green oak  indicate  that,  though  this  floral  associa- 
tion may  be  uncommon.  I  really  believe  that 
along  the  edges  of  that  great  lake  ahead  of  us  are — 
palms!" 

It  was  only  a  short  way  from  this  delightful  spot, 
with  its  sweeping  view,  that  we  heard  the  rush  and 
roar  of  falling  water,  as  we  now  fought  our  way 
through  a  tangled  maze  of  branches,  emerging  at 
intervals  on  grassy  glades  which  bore  evidence  of 
the  past  presence  of  the  wild  pigs.  An  hour  later 
we  almost  tumbled  over  the  brink  of  a  rocky  gulf, 
into  which  the  gathered  waters  of  the  river  ob- 
viously fell.  We  could  not  see  the  falls,  but  the 
spouting  spray,  rising  in  spiral  puffs,  the  moisture 
showering  through  the  trees,  and  the  dull  bass 
resonation  from  the  tormented  pool  that  caught  the 
plunging  torrent,  announced  its  nearness. 

It  was  a  matter  of  some  difficulty,  making  our 
descent,  and  the  ropes  again  did  good  service  in 
helping  us  down  the  vertical  walls.  It  was  pretty 
clear  that  we  were  about  to  meet  a  picture  of  some 
grandeur,  for  our  climb  continued,  and  when  we 
finally  broke  through  to  the  river  again,  we  had 


176  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

descended  over  three  hundred  feet.  Fortunately  we 
were  not  required  to  increase  our  exertions  to  reach 
a  favorable  position  for  enjoyment  of  the  scenic 
wonder  we  had  circumvented.     It  was  before  us. 

Above  us  in  a  narrow  sheet,  in  a  setting  of  the 
wildest  beauty,  the  river  poured  its  flood,  tense, 
glossy,  when  it  first  slipped  over  the  rim,  as  with 
that  convulsive  firmness  of  the  young  swimmer  at 
the  first  plunge  over  his  head.  Then  it  began 
unraveling  its  woven  strands,  and  became  plicated 
in  silken  ridges  that  unwound  still  more,  or  flew 
apart  in  diamond  dust,  so  volatile  that  it  rose  up- 
ward in  shimmers  and  rainbows,  while  at  our  feet, 
discharged  from  the  overburdened  pool,  rushed  a 
torrent  of  mobile  beryl.  It  was  transcendently 
lovely  in  the  frame  of  trees;  and  how  amazing  to 
have  repeated  here,  at  the  pole  of  the  earth,  the 
familiar  charms  of  the  woodlands  and  streams,  the 
sylvan  solitudes  of  the  world  in  temperate  and 
tropical  climes  where  the  sun  rose  and  set  each  day 
throughout  the  year! 

What  was  climate?  "Climate,"  retorted  the 
Professor,  "is  an  atmospheric  condition  fundament- 
ally dependent  upon  the  heat  received  from  the  sun, 
but  if  there  is  light,  that  heat  can  come  from  the 
interior  level  of  the  earth  itself  quite  as  well." 

"Yes,"  we  exclaimed,  "if  there  is  light,  but  the 
light  that,  as  with  the  sun,  insures  the  processes  of 
growth  in  plants,  should  not  be  here,  for  the  sun 
has  already  run  its  course  for  the  functions  of 
vegetation  at  the  North.  What  is  the  meaning  of 
this  continuous  light  that  bathes  this  marvelous 
new  world  we  have  entered?  Does  it,  like  the  sun- 
light, build  up  leaves,  decorate  flowers,  strengthen 
twig    and    trunk?" 

"Ah!  Does  it?"  soliloquized  the  Professor. 
"Solvitur  amhulando;  look  around  us.  What  do 
you  see?" 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  177 

We  did  look  around  us,  we  were  looking  even 
then,  and  the  scene  was  indeed  rich  in  color,  in 
greenness,  in  luxuriance  perhaps  of  floral  charm. 
This  everlasting  illumination,  with  the  strange 
accommodation  of  the  plants  to  an  enforced  sleep, 
almost  maddened  us  with  wonder.  To  be  sure  we 
found  out  later  that  the  greenness  changed,  and,  if  we 
had  studied  the  matter  more  closely  we  would  have 
been  made  aware  of  a  paleness  in  the  grass  (this 
condition  had  been  evident  for  some  days,  while  a 
peculiar  effect  within  ourselves  seemed  referable  to 
this  inexplicable  light).  I  will  return  to  this  when 
it  has  formed  the  topic  of  a  later  conference,  held 
during  those  divine  hours  passed  on  the  hills  of  the 
Deer  Pels. 

We  now  had  satisfied  our  eyes  with  the  picture 
show,  and  we  hastened  on,  for  our  supplies  of  duck 
were  almost  exhausted,  and,  although  the  Professor 
had  added  to  this  a  salutary  and  delicious  spinach- 
like mess,  made  from  the  boiled  shoots  and  tender 
leaves  of  a  plant  like  our  poke  or  pigeon  berry, 
which  grew  abundantly  in  the  valleys,  yet  we  had 
become  impatient  for  some  change  of  food.  The 
pigs  suggested  a  new  and  appetizing  novelty  in  our 
cuisine.  This  indication  of  game  in  the  country  we 
were  approaching  whetted  our  desire  to  begin  a  more 
stirring  life,  and  to  penetrate  now  rapidly  towards 
the  veritable  center  and  solution  of  all  this  mystery. 

It  was  not  long  before  we  had  threaded  the  pre- 
cipitous ravine,  which  from  the  foot  of  the  falls 
extended  into  the  park-like  expanses  about  the 
great  lake.  A  great  lake  it  was,  dotted  with  dis- 
tant islands  and  embosomed  in  a  subdued  white 
land  almost  impossible  to  describe.  The  borders 
of  the  lake  were  marshy  and  fiat,  the  water  was 
fresh,  and  the  vegetation  in  its  neighborhood  green. 
It  was  a  physiographic  anomaly  to  find  this  fresh- 
ness enclosed  in  a  land  on  whose  face  were  written 


178  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

most  legibly  the  characters  of  sterility  and  dryness. 
The  soil  of  the  low  hills  was  parched,  and  a  cactus 
or  euphorbia  growth  replaced  the  broad  leaved 
plants  which  had  pertinaciously  clung  to  our  steps 
up  to  this  point,  and  had  indeed  pushed  out  into 
the  plain,  but  with  an  evident  aversion,  as  they 
became  smaller,  sparser,  and  at  some  remove  disap- 
peared altogether.  The  spiky  stiffness  of  some- 
thing like  the  Spanish  Bayonet  gradually  assumed 
predominance,  and  the  ashen  tokens  of  sage  bush 
(?)  multiplied. 

We  concluded  that  in  our  hand-to-mouth  method 
of  subsistence  it  might  be  unsafe  to  venture  for- 
ward on  this  trackless  waste,  and,  still  expectant  of 
finally  terminating  our  exploration  with  the  finding 
of  human  beings,  agreed  to  follow  the  margin  of  the 
lake.  This  would  keep  us  supplied  with  food, 
would  carry  us  on,  apparently  a  little  north  of  east, 
and  as  its  waters  were  fresh,  would  doubtless  offer 
some  outlet  of  escape  without  compelling  us  to 
traverse  the  inhospitable  barrens. 

It  was  here  that  we  shot  some  quail-like  birds, 
which  furnished  a  new  element  to  our  larder,  and 
some  acid  and  fruity  berries  proved  edible,  after 
our  ludicrously  careful  experiments  had  tested  their 
qualities.  Then  Hopkins  ran  against  a  formidable 
wild  hog  and  laid  him  low,  and  while  he  did  not 
prove  exactly  delectable,  there  was  a  noticeable 
difference  from  previous  entries  on  our  menus  which 
made  that  addition  welcome  also.  The  Professor 
extracted  some  lard  which  helped  as  fuel  and  served 
to  quicken  into  a  blaze  our  sluggish  fires. 

The  palms  noted  by  the  Professor  were  fully 
realized,  and  they  made  the  most  curious  and  ex- 
traordinary foregrounds,  in  conspicuous  groups, 
against  the  dull  lengthiness  and  vapid  immensity 
of  the  chlorinated  desert  beyond  them.  It  was  at 
this  time  that  we  hit  the  zoological  phenomenon 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  179 

hinted  at  before,  which  completed  our  nervous 
prostration,  if  mental  suspense  and  amazement 
represent  that  state.  We  were  encamped  about 
three  days'  journey  from  the  deep  glade  from 
which  we  emerged  on  the  plain,  and  were  still  fol- 
lowing the  marginal  fertile  tracts  bordering  the 
lake.     The  lake  furnished  some  surprises. 

Strips  of  muddy  banks  forming  islands  covered 
with  a  profusion  of  plants,  among  which  might 
tower  a  palm,  banks  of  marl  wherein  the  Professor 
picked  out  cretaceous  fossils,  occasional  warm 
springs,  the  condensed  vapors  of  which  floated 
lazily  upward,  and  which,  where  they  spouted  from 
the  ground,  had  erected  basins  of  calcareous  sinter, 
or  their  waters  trickled  to  the  lake  between  banks 
red  and  white  like  painted  boards. 

Our  camp — a  fire,  our  knapsacks,  our  multi- 
serviceable  pot  and  fryingpan,  and  our  outstretched 
figures,  with  the  instruments,  always  including  our 
camera  outfit,  a  few  implements  and  guns — was  at 
the  foot  of  a  thicket  of  high  ferns,  under  a  group  of 
palms,  and  we  were  at  the  base  of  an  inconsiderable 
hill  or  rise,  whose  top  these  ferns  and  palms  con- 
cealed. Hopkins  had  just  returned  from  stalking 
some  of  the  wild  pigs,  but  he  was  empty  handed ; 
Goritz  was  very  busy  devising  a  stretcher  or  hurdle 
for  our  various  belongings,  to  be  carried  between 
two  of  us,  by  turns,  and  the  Professor  was  ruminat- 
ing, with  head  in  his  hands,  his  wing-like  ears  pro- 
truding. I  think  I  was  asleep.  Our  supper  had 
been  made  memorable  by  tea;  a  hidden  package 
in  one  of  our  packs  contained  this  precious  leaf,  and 
it  was  quite  noteworthy  how  it  revived  and  cheered 
us. 

Well,  I  felt  a  sharp  jolt,  and  a  cavernous  abyss 
yawned  under  my  feet,  and  with  a  monstrous  effort 
I  snatched  a  providential  branch  and  saved  myself 
from  falling.     My  eyes  opened;    I  had  seized  Hop- 


180  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

kins'  leg,  and  it  was  he  whose  energetic  shaking  had 
broken  my  slumbers  with  this  nightmare. 

"Get  a  move  on,  Alfred.  The  scrap  of  the  cen- 
turies is  going  on  up  there."  He  pointed  to  the 
grove  and  hilltop.  "If  we  had  a  motion-picture 
camera,  we'd  have  everything  in  that  line  knocked 
into  junk.  Get  up.  The  White  Hope  is  having  it 
out  with  the  sable  champion." 

Utterly  bewildered  by  these  incomprehensible 
words  I  struggled  to  my  feet,  and  we  both  scram- 
bled pele-mele  to  the  top,  and  there  joined  Goritz 
and  the  Professor,  who  hardly  noticed  our  ap- 
proach, so  absorbed  were  they  in  watching  the 
strangest  spectacle  that  ever  human  eyes  beheld. 

Out  on  the  level  on  a  thin  carpet  of  herbs  and 
grass  was  reared  the  violent  and  horrible  shape  of  a 
writhing,  bending,  gracefully  oscillating,  whitish- 
green  monster,  and  before  him  the  infuriated  figure 
of  a  black  pig.  The  pig's  bristling  mane  was 
erected,  his  small  tail,  like  a  bit  of  black  rope,  beat 
upon  his  muscular  buttocks,  his  eyes  gleamed 
viciously,  his  muzzle  with  its  expanded  nostrils  was 
upturned,  and  his  challenge  sounded  like  a  cornet, 
and  again  like  a  rolling  drum. 

But  the  creature  before  it  mastered  all  attention. 
The  elongated  head  of  a  saurian  armed  along  its 
jaws  with  sword-like  teeth,  a  long  curved  neck,  a 
thorax  but  slightly  enlarged  over  the  width  of  the 
rest  of  the  body,  provided  with  a  short  pair  of  front 
legs,  terminated  by  claws  perceptibly  webbed,  and 
opening  and  shutting  with  a  nervous  rapidity, 
noticeable  dull-colored  scales  striping  its  sides,  a 
pair  of  much  longer  hind  legs  on  whose  skin-en- 
wrapped, stilt-like  support  it  had  raised  itself,  and 
tl^n  a  prodigious  tail,  heavy  and  fat  at  its  protru- 
si^,  but  lengthening  out  into  a  thin  python-like 
body  whose  involuntary  movements  swayed  it  to  and 
fro  in  serpentine  motions  through  the  flattened  weeds. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  181 

The  color  of  the  beast  was  most  loathsome;  a 
sickly  yellow  white  it  seemed  at  first ;  a  closer  study 
showed  it  to  be  a  nauseating  green,  like  a  frog  scum, 
and  yet  through  it  all,  as  if  summoned  to  the  sur- 
face at  the  will  of  the  creature,  coursed  reddish 
blotches,  whose  inflamed  contrasts  gave  the  whole 
skin  the  aspect  of  inflammation,  of  purulent  disease. 
This  coloring  prevailed  over  the  neck,  the  faintly 
swelling  belly,  the  sides,  and  over  the  hind  rump 
and  thighs  and  anal  region.  The  monster 
awakened  an  awestruck  repulsion.  But  at  the 
moment  its  source,  home,  meaning,  were  swallowed 
up  in  the  thrilling,  tremendous  combat  between 
these  strange  litigants,  a  wild  boar  of  today,  a 
saurian — a  tyrannosaurus  or  something  like  it — of 
the  Cretaceous! 

The  huge  lizard  was  skillful,  wavering,  crafty  and 
sinuous.  It  swung  from  side  to  side,  and  when  it 
attempted  to  descend  on  its  antagonist  its  mouth 
opened,  almost  absurdly,  as  if  waiting  for  the 
appetizing  bite  its  hunger  or  its  ferocity  anticipated. 
A  wicked  mouth,  shining  with  yellow  teeth  and 
slobbering  with  saliva!  Any  disposition  to  laugh  at 
its  floundering  indecision  was  soon,  or  at  once,  over- 
come by  hatred  of  its  hideousness. 

It  was  interesting  to  watch  the  hog.  He  was 
irresolute  and  then  aggressive;  he  lunged  outward 
and  then  tumbled  backward.  As  the  giant  lizard 
reeled  upward  and  then  poured  forward,  the 
bristling  pig  would  run  in,  and  then  "sidestep," 
as  Hopkins  said.  The  ultimate  object  of  both 
combatants  became  increasingly  clear;  the  saurian 
aimed  at  crashing  down  on  the  pig,  and  the  pig 
relying  on  its  sharp  incisors  intended  to  rip  open 
the  defenceless  abdomen  of  its  foe.  Again  and 
again  with  shifting  success  they  attempted  their 
invariable  coups,  and  again  and  again  recoiled, 
frustrated  in  their  design. 


182  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

The  fight  passed  through  one  episode  of  some 
novelty.  The  saurian  in  flinging  itself  forward  lost 
its  balance,  and,  as  it  were,  stumbled  to  the  ground. 
We  saw  its  eyes  then,  queer  turgid,  opal  masses,  lit 
internally  with  fire.  In  a  trice  the  pig  leaped  upon 
its  back,  stamping  and  tearing,  but,  in  another 
trice,  the  effort  seemed  incalculable,  the  huge  tail 
of  the  snake  lizard  swept  around  and  bowled  the 
discomfited  porker  sideways  with  a  swishing  blow 
that  knocked  it  down.  Then  for  a  moment  it 
seemed  as  if  the  coiling  ribbon  would  enclose  the 
pig,  when,  held  in  its  crushing  vise,  the  lizard  might 
dissect  its  victim  at  leisure.  But  the  pig  squirmed 
out  of  the  trap,  and,  nothing  daunted,  resumed  its 
defence  with  less  obvious  pugnacity.  Except  for 
its  monstrous  spectacular  features  the  conflict  grew 
monotonous.     And  here  came  the  end. 

Nature  was  exhausted;  an  unguarded  moment 
of  inattention  and,  like  the  black  pounce  of  the 
eagle,  the  ponderous  head  of  the  lizard  fell  on  the 
pig,  the  scimitar  teeth  cut  into  hide  and  bone.  A 
snarling  roar,  an  infuriated  lacerating  drive  by  the 
boar,  and,  though  he  sank  sideways  in  a  death 
agony,  his  tusks  had  torn  open  the  belly  of  his 
conqueror.  The  viscera  emptied  from  their  en- 
closure, an  abominable  odor  assailed  us,  and  the 
great  bulk  of  the  amphibian  lapsed  to  the  ground, 
its  inverted  head,  caught  in  the  chancery  of  its 
body,  broke  its  neck,  and  with  a  husky  frightening 
exhalation,  like  a  magnified  hiss,  it  fell  in  convul- 
sions.    The  pig  was  already  dead. 

Just  then  none  of  us  were  inclined  to  pursue  any 
investigations.  We  were  all  absolutely  silent,  and 
all  went  back  to  our  little  camp  in  a  state  of  mental 
consternation.  The  Professor  had  no  theories  to 
propose,  nor  had  Hopkins  any  comments.  As  for 
Goritz,  he  mechanically  brought  out  the  gold  belt, 
and  as  I  bent  over  him  and  noticed  its  relievos,  I 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  183 

felt  convinced  that  its  designer  and  artificer  had 
seen  the  saurian. 

But  something  more  awful  occurred  about  three 
hours  afterwards,  when,  as  we  observed,  the  smell 
from  the  battlefield  became  more  and  more  intoler- 
able. The  waters  of  the  lake  were  furrowed  with 
approaching  objects,  exposed  heads  rose  upon  the 
shore,  shuffling  and  waddling  and  scrambling 
creatures  proceeded  up  the  bank,  and  the  entangled 
bodies  of  the  great  lizard  and  the  pig  were  soon 
being  torn  to  pieces,  in  the  clapping  jaws  of  the 
former's  brethren,  as  they  rustled  and  scraped 
against  each  other  in  their  envious  greed  in  what, 
by  our  reckoning,  was  their  nocturnal  banquet. 

Soon,  however,  I  fell  asleep  again;  a  feverish 
sleep  it  was  and  I  welcomed  my  awakening.  It 
must  have  been  hours  later,  the  lake  was  calm  and 
beautiful  to  see  in  the  mysterious  light,  and  it  was 
the  cheerful,  heart-inspiring  voice  of  Hopkins  that 
half  restored  my  normal  gaiety.  He  was  helping 
the  Professor  at  what  in  its  serial  position  was  our 
breakfast,  and  he  prattled  to  his  benignant  com- 
rade: 

"  'We  were  amphibians,  scaled  and  tailed, 
And  drab  as  a  dead  man's  hand; 
We  coiled  at  ease  'neath  the  dripping  trees 
Or  trailed  through  the  mud  and  sand. 
Croaking  and  blind,  with  our  three  clawed 

feet 
Writing  a  language  dumb, 
With  never  a  spark  in  the  empty  dark, 
To  hint  at  a  life  to  come.'  " 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Deer  Pels 

I  must  hasten  my  story;  so  much  remains  to  be 
told,  more  wondrous,  strange  and  unnatural, 
though  that  last  word  is  not  to  be  interpreted  in 
any  of  its  senses  as  abhorrent.     Far  from  it. 

We  hurried  away  from  the  scene  of  the  peculiar 
combat  and  the  fratricidal  feast.  I  do  not  think 
we  feared  these  hideous  saurians.  We  looked  for 
them,  and  the  Professor  exulted  in  their  evident 
marks  of  an  evolutionary  history  (philogeny,  he 
called  it)  quite  isolated  or  diverse  from  those 
established  by  Barnum  Brown,  Williston,  Lowe  and 
others  for  the  sauropsida  of  the — Mr.  Link  I  was 
actually  going  to  say  EARTH,  in  a  foreign  sense, 
for  somehow  in  this  Krocker  Land  we  felt  detached 
from  all  we  had  ever  known  or  ever  been.  Had  we 
been  transferred  to  Mars  or  the  Moon  or  any  other 
inconceivably  contrasted  sphere,  we  could  not  have 
felt  more  inimitably  separated  from  what  we  had 
called  the  Earth. 

No  more  of  the  Crocodilo-Pythons,  so  Goritz 
called  them,  were  seen.  We  believed  that  their 
habitats  were  in  the  half  submerged  broad  flatlands 
that  rose  in  archipelagos  out  in  vast  expanses  of 
this  inland  sea.  Perhaps  we  traversed  a  distance  of 
one  hundred  miles  before  the  mingled  expression  of 
sage  desert  and  semi-tropical  lake  began  to  change. 
The  opposite  boundary  of  the  lake  (Goritz  as  our 

184 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  185 

geographer  has  named  it  the  Saurian  Sea)  became 
visible.  We  were  approaching  a  constriction  or 
closing  of  its  banks,  and  in  a  few  days  we  perceived 
that  it  emptied  into  a  wild,  deeply  sunken  ravine  or 
canon,  an  enormous,  terrifying  gorge  of  sandstones 
and  limestones,  where  we  could  just  dimly  discern 
the  foaming  cataracts,  the  eye-like  preparatory 
pools,  and  then  the  sweltering  froth  of  raging 
rapids. 

The  water  of  the  Saurian  Sea  enters  this  canon 
(the  Canon  of  Promise  Goritz  called  it,  for  a  reason 
yet  a  long  way  ahead  in  my  narrative)  over  an  incline, 
and  a  series  of  waterfalls,  which  were  invisible  to  us. 
It  was  hopeless  to  follow  the  canon,  nor  could  we  con- 
tinue northward  for  we  were  powerless  to  cross  the 
river.  There  remained  the  alternative  of  turning 
to  the  left,  penetrating  the  sage  plain  and  attaining 
the  slopes  of  a  hill  country  eastward,  at  whose  feet 
doubtless  the  desert  terminated.  It  promised  to 
be  an  easy  day's  journey  and  it  was.  The  quail 
had  supplied  us  with  food.  They  now  replaced  the 
ducks.  Indeed  the  Saurian  Sea  became  almost 
devoid  of  aquatic  bird  life  as  we  advanced,  an 
eloquent  testimony  we  thought  to  the  fear  of  the 
omnivorous  brutes  who  lived  there. 

We  crossed  the  desert  and  were  delighted  to 
observe  its  gradual  surrender  to  the  encroaching 
features  of  a  pleasanter  land,  a  hill  country  sloping 
away  into  painted  domes;  not  a  land  of  heavy  rain- 
fall nor  deeply  forested.  Its  undulating  skyline 
presented  rounded  and  densely  shrubby  ground 
which  to  our  eyes  seemed  luminous  with  a  pink 
haze.  The  fianks  of  these  hills  were  clothed  in  a 
coarse  grass  unevenly  distributed,  and  even  absent 
from  bare  spaces  of  the  limestone  rock,  where  a 
gray  half  succulent  moss  flourished.  We  noted  too 
with  some  astonishment  that  these  aspects  of  the 
hills  facing  us  seemed  in  shadow,  contrasting  efifec- 


186  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

tively  with  the  singular  pinkish  aureole  along  their 
high  outlines. 

Goritz  discovered  with  our  glass  the  presence  of 
moving  or  browsing  groups  of  animals  and  a 
moment  later  exclaimed: 

"They're  deer,  small  deer.  No  w^orry  now  about 
the  commissariat." 

"You  see,"  murmured  the  Professor,  "the  sedi- 
mentary rocks  here  prove  that  at  some  time  this 
boreal  basin  has  been  invaded  by  the  sea,  a  former 
deeper  cavity  has  been  filled  up  by  these  strata  of 
limestone,  slate,  sandstone  and  marl.  The  mol- 
luscan  remains,  such  as  I  have  picked  up,  whether 
in  the  Saurian  Sea  area,  in  the  Canon  of  Promise, 
or  on  these  moors,  are  generically  similar  to  those 
of  the  cretaceous,  tertiary,  and  paleozoic  rocks  of 
Europe  or  America.  About  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt."  and  he  approvingly  exhibited  the  small 
collection  he  retained  from  his  examination.  "The 
outermost  rocks  of  the  Krocker  Land  Rim  are  the 
earliest  crystallines  and  eruptives.  Their  solidi- 
fication belongs  to  the  very  first  primary  con- 
ditions, and  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
we  can  say  that  this  stupendous  cavity,  continental 
in  extent,  either  represents  that  physical  polar 
pitting  I  alluded  to  when  we  discussed  this  expedi- 
tion in  Norway,  made  when  the  Earth  was  assum- 
ing its  spheroidal  shape  and  was  a  mass  of  swiftly 
revolving  mobile  magma,  or — "  the  Professor's 
succeeding  statement  impressed  him  so  solemnly, 
that  his  administrative  and  reportorial  manner 
became  almost  gloomy  in  its  earnestness.  We 
watched  him  with  dilated  eyes — "or — that  it  repre- 
sents the  wound,  cicatrix,  and  HOLE  from  which 
was  ejected  the  earth's  satellite — the  MOON." 

Comment  was  in  order,  but  we  had  become  rather 
plastic  under  the  Professor's  instructions,  or,  shall 
I    say,    gelatinized,    and    incapable   of   a    natural 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  187 

remonstrance  against  his  dictations.  But  Goritz 
demurred.    Hopkins  and  I  listened  with  admiration. 

"Professor,  the  moon  came  out  of  the  side  of  the 
earth,  centrifugally  separated  at  the  equator  by 
fastest  motion,  surely  not  out  of  the  pole.  Darwin 
has  suggested,  you  know,  that  the  Pacific  Ocean — " 

"True,  Antoine.  True,  true.  I  know  all  of 
George  Darwin's  speculations.  True,  but  suppose 
the  axis  of  the  earth's  rotation  has  changed;  sup- 
pose this  very  area  here  at  85°  north  latitude  had 
formerly  been  equatorial  in  position.  That  is  a 
view  of  commendable  authority.  It  has  been 
urged  to  explain  the  Ice  Age,  though  I  admit, 
Goritz,  it  has  not,  today,  the  most  respectable 
authorization. 

''Mais,  passons."  This  theoretical  retreat  and 
deflection  of  the  Professor  before  Goritz's  criticism 
sensibly  flattered  my  friend.  "You  see  gentlemen, 
that  these  startling  surfaces  before  us  seem,  as  you 
have  noticed,  to  be  in  shadow.  I  think  that  throws 
some  light  on  the  character  of  the  singular  continu- 
ous illumination  of  this  region.  Up  to  this  point 
we  have  generally  been  descending,  since  we  left 
the  vapor  shroud  of  the  Perpetual  Nimbus;  we 
have  been  climbing  down  the  walls  of  a  bowl  whose 
central  sun  is  of  sufficient  intensity  to  illuminate  it 
throughout  its  extent,  but,  having  an  inconsiderable 
volume  or  size  as  compared  with  the  size  of  the 
bowl  itself,  and  also — mark  me — a  fixed  position, 
can  only  throw  shadows  when  intervening  objects 
occur,  as  a  lamp  in  the  middle  of  a  room  illuminates 
the  whole  room,  but  throws  shadows  toward  the 
walls  of  the  room,  where  there  are  obstructions. 
But  the  higher  the  position  of  the  lamp  in  the  room, 
with  reference  to  the  floor,  the  shorter  the  shadows. 
Here  is  an  exact  parallel,  and  I  take  it  that  as  the 
shadow  of  these  hills,  which  may  be  three  thousand 
feet  high,  hardly  extends  into  the  plain,  the  fixed, 


188  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

subsidiary  SUN  we  are  approaching  may  be  to- 
wards the  Hmits  of  our  atmosphere,  or  say  twenty- 
five  miles  over  the  mean  level  of  the  earth." 

We  grasped  this  quickly  enough,  and  the  image 
remained,  as  you  will  see  in  the  sequel,  substan- 
tially correct,  though  greatly  corrected  as  to  alti- 
tude. 

The  deer  were  easily  trapped;  they  hardly 
noticed  our  approach,  and,  though  startled  by  the 
discharge  of  our  guns,  would  only  scamper  off  for  a 
short  distance,  herd  in  compact  bunches,  and 
watch  us.  They  were  small  animals,  perhaps  half 
the  size  of  the  Virginia  deer,  but  their  flesh  was 
delicious,  and  our  first  meal,  graced  with  the  coldest 
spring  water  and  by  a  small  toothsome  red  berry 
like  a  strawberry,  imparted  to  us  the  liveliest 
spirits.  We  felt  eager  and  excited,  an  almost  irri- 
table curiosity  had  developed  within  us;  forgetful 
of  all  we  had  left,  oblivious,  through  an  inscrutable 
exaltation  of  wonder,  of  the  things,  objects  and 
endearments  of  home,  we  hungered  for  adventure. 
It  was  not  many  hours  later  that  a  new  sensation 
eclipsed  everything  we  had  so  far  experienced,  and 
threw  us  into  an  excitement  that  stirred  the  depths 
of  our  beings. 

Less  than  a  day  was  consumed  in  making  the 
ascent  of  the  hills,  which  resembled  steeply  inclined 
moors,  and  on  their  summits  we  entered  on  a  sunny 
(?)  expanse,  captivating  in  its  loveliness  of  color, 
and  ingratiatingly  varied  in  topography.  The 
tantalizing  pinkish  haze  was  explained.  It  was  an 
endless  billowy  ocean  of  pale  heather,  with  clumps 
of  yellowness  like  gorze.  As  we  looked  over  the 
entrancing  picture  in  a  golden  light,  in  a  freshening 
and  tonic  atmosphere,  with  a  reverberant  sense  of 
being  travelers  in  fairy  land,  a  poem  taught  me 
long  ago  by  an  English  friend  came  almost  unbid- 
den to  my  lips: 


3' 


.%>^ 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  189 

"  'What,  you  are  stepping  westward?  Yea 
'Twould  be  a  wildish  destiny 
If  we  who  thus  together  roam, 
In  a  strange  land  and  far  from  home, 
Were  in  this  place  the  guests  of  chance: 
Yet  who  would  stop,  or  fear  to  advance, 
Though  home  or  shelter  he  had  none 
With  such  a  sky  to  lead  him  on?  '  " 

And  westward  we  too  went  on. 

Marshes,  wet  concealed  bottoms,  lakes  and 
boggy  tracts  diversified  these  uplands;  and  down 
gulches  in  the  bold  profiled  bays  streams  poured  in 
cascades,  all  rushing  westward.  Coming  over  a 
lower  neck  between  the  domes  we  came  in  view  of  a 
dark  blue  lake  of  water  far  down  in  a  narrow  amphi- 
theater; just  above  it  on  a  higher  shelf  was  a 
second  smaller  lake.  What  appeared  to  be  white 
gulls  were  sailing  in  circles  over  them.  The  pic- 
ture was  a  lovely  one  We  clambered  up  its 
eastern  wall,  and,  in  the  midst  of  low  balsams  that 
here  interrupted  the  heather,  and  so  thickly 
crowded  together  that  you  could  walk  on  top  of 
them,  we  looked  straight  into  the  pocket.  We  lay 
down  on  the  short  balsam  trees,  in  a  soft  perfumed 
bed  of  green  needles,  and  gazed  and  gazed.  A 
strong  wind  blew.  Far,  far  eastward  rose  that 
portentous  bulwark  of  clouds  and  misty  confusion 
which  the  Professor  had  called  the  "Perpetual 
Nimbus,''  and  which  was  the  cosmic  screen  of  this 
wonderland.  Hopkins  was  on  his  back,  and  it  was 
he  whose  cry  shot  a  new  thrill  of — How  shall  I  name 
it? — laughing  consternation  through  us. 

"My  God,"  he  cried  in  a  sort  of  stifled  shout, 
"there's  a  gang  of  the  fellows  we're  looking  for, 
straight  above  us,  in  a  cluster,  like  so  many  soap 
bubbles." 

Again  his  summons  brought  us  to  a  concentrated 
attention,  and  sure  enough,  dimly  separable  from 
the  air  in  which  it  floated,  was  a  minute  cloud  of 


190  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

small  balloons,  and  dependent  from  each  group  of 
three  the  outline  of  a  small  human  figure — and  all 
gently  drifting  in  an  upper  current  of  air,  certainly 
less  strong  than  the  brisk  gale  about  us. 

"Get  under  the  trees,"  whispered  Goritz, 
"they're  coming  down." 

We  were  quickly  concealed,  burrowing  our  way 
with  the  alertness  of  moles  below  the  thatched 
branches,  and  each  eagerly  hunting  for  a  spying 
place  whence  we  might  watch  this  strange  argosy. 
Yes!  They  were  rapidly  approaching;  the  dangling 
legs,  the  fluttering  blue  and  yellow  tunics,  confined 
by  golden  belts  (!!!)  were  visible,  curious  unpro- 
portionate  heads,  hanging  forward  as  if  from  heavi- 
ness, legs  in  loose  trousers,  and  sandaled  feet. 
Then  the  wind  blowing  about  us  touched  them  and, 
like  a  gyrating  swarm  of  mosquitoes  dispersed  by  a 
breeze,  they  were  flung  away,  dancing,  bobbing, 
hither  and  thither,  and  from  them  issued  squealy 
shouts  and  squeaky  laughter.  They  came  to- 
gether again,  directed  by  means  undiscoverable 
to  us,  though  the  Professor  detected  some  waving 
objects  in  their  hands,  and  then  the  crowd,  perhaps 
twenty,  as  if  suddenly  apprized  of  their  desired 
position,  dropped  like  so  many  unsupported  bodies 
straight  into  the  deep  pocket  of  the  little  lake  we 
had  just  been  admiring. 

The  wind  did  not  drift  them,  the  balloons  seemed 
collapsible,  but,  to  our  amazement,  they  expanded 
again,  checking  the  fall.  In  fact,  unless  our  eyes 
deceived  us,  and  we  all  agreed  as  to  the  main  point, 
the  balloons  inflated  and  shrank,  somehow  at  the 
will  of  these  extraordinary  beings,  producing  an 
effect  not  dissimilar  to  the  opening  and  shutting  of 
a  bird's  wing,  the  alternations  of  which  carry  it  up 
and  down. 

As  they  slid  past  us,  perhaps  not  more  than  a 
good  stone's  throw  from  our  place  of  concealment 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  191 

we  were  permitted  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  them,  and 
it  was  hard  to  restrain  the  impulse  of  leaping  to  our 
feet  to  obtain  a  longer  inspection.  Another 
moment  and  they  disappeared  below  the  brow  of 
the  hill.  We  emerged  cautiously.  Goritz  spoke 
first,  though  he,  like  the  rest  of  us,  seemed  a  little 
stunned  by  the  weirdness,  the  wizardry  of  it  all. 

"If  they've  gone  down,  they  must  come  up. 
But  what  are  they?" 

"Well,"  answered  Hopkins,  "search  me!  This 
is  nearer  to  fairy  land  than  I  ever  thought  a  human 
could  get,  and — I  don't  believe  I  like  it.  Rather 
goblin-like  I  thought,  though  not  Gilbert's  notion 
either; 

'The  goblin-imp,  a  lithe  young  ape, 
A  fine  low-comedy  bogy?" 

"Certainly  the  genus  homo,''  said  the  Professor 
reflectively,  and  looking  more  startled  than  pleased. 
"They  offer  a  field  of  unusual  research.  They 
might  be,"  he  lifted  his  eyes  upward,  almost  as  if 
imploring  light  on  the  subject,  "they  might  be 
preadamites.  They  were  not  simian,  not  in  the 
least.  Gentlemen,"  sudden  thought  lit  up  his  face 
with  the  customary  smile,  while  his  lips  retreated, 
displaying  his  imperfect  teeth,  his  eyes  grew  larger 
or  they  issued  farther  from  their  orbits,  and  his  red 
hair,  now  inordinately  long,  draped  his  face  in  a 
rufous  tapestry  that  made  him  look  still  more 
strangely  excited.  "Gentlemen,  I  have  it  ("Thank 
God,"  sotto  voce  from  Hopkins),  I  have  it.  We 
have  here  an  isolated  group  of  mentalities  that  have 
been  subjected  to  a  restrictive  and  intensive  process 
of  development.  Of  course  they  had  initially  the 
prerogatives  of  reason.  They  have  attained  a 
peculiar  culture,  it  may  be  a  very  one-sided  one,  but 
at  least  their  methods  of  aeronautics  leave  little  to 
be  desired,  and  they  understand  and  practice  metal 


192  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

working,  textile  arts;  they  have  a  language.  Per- 
sonal beauty  they  do  not  boast  ("That's  putting  it 
mild;  they  looked  like  blueprints,"  again  sotto 
voce  from  Hopkins)  and  their  physiques  seem 
dwarfed  and  impoverished.  How  did  they  strike 
you,  Erickson?  What  did  you  see?  Your  linguistic 
knowledge  may  help  us,  and — I  think  you  had  our 
glass." 

Parenthetically  I  may  tell  you,  Mr.  Link,  that 
I  have  been  a  poor  sort  of  a  journalist,  and  a  teacher 
of  languages,  and  a  traveler,  a  mixture  of  vocations 
not  conducive,  you  will  say,  to  signal  distinction  in 
any  line. 

"This  is  what  I  saw,"  I  began,  with  an  assertive- 
ness  that  brought  me  wrapt  attention.  It  was  true 
that  I  had  seen  a  good  deal ;  my  monopoly  of  our 
field  glass  had  been  complete.  I  spoke  with 
rather  crisp  acerbity  because  I  had  already  taken  a 
strong  prejudice  against  these  jaundiced  objects, 
and  neither  as  associates  nor  as  subjects  of  study 
was  I  willing  to  seek  their  acquaintance. 

"They  are  diaphanous  yellow  anthropological 
insects,  with  big  beetle  heads  dropping  forward, 
scrappy  hair  or  none  at  all ,  are  anemic,  short  bodied , 
long  legged,  short  armed,  and  absurdly  pervaded 
by  a  saffron-blueness — I  can  describe  it  in  no  other 
words.  You  saw  their  dress;  the  tunic  clothing 
them  like  a  nightshirt  or  a  butcher's  blouse,  is 
cinctured  by  a  gold  belt!  They  are  scarcely  more 
than  three  feet  high." 

"Alfred,"  asked  Goritz,  "are  you  sure  about  the 
gold  belt?  I  thought  I  saw  yellow  links  around 
their  bodies  too." 

"Oh,  yes,"  I  replied  indifferently,  "the  gold  belts 
were  plain  enough,  but  Antoine,  I  tell  you  you  had 
better  leave  these  microbes  alone." 

The  intensity  of  my  repugnance  amused  them. 
I    think   it   was   shared    by    Hopkins.     He   said, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  193 

"They've  rather  got  my  goat,  but  the  risk  of  seeing 
the  thing  out  is  worth  taking.  They  certainly  have 
the  goods  and,  as  for  scrapping —  Well,  say,  we 
could  blow  'em  away." 

"Could  you,"  I  indignantly  flared  up.  "Not  so 
fast,  Spruce.  Did  you  see  those  tubes  in  their 
white  fingers?" 

"Yes,  I  saw  them?"  Hopkins  rejoined  interroga- 
tively.    "Looked  like  lead  pipe." 

"Well,  I'm  sure  there's  devilment  enough  in 
them.  They  raised  them  this  way  and  that,  and 
guided  their  flight  by  them." 

"What's  the  harm?"  Hopkins  continued.  "Per- 
haps they've  a  thing  or  two  worth  patenting  in 
ballooning;  very  likely.  They're  funny  enough, 
but — Pshaw! — we  can  run  'em  in  any  time  with 
these  guns." 

"How  many  balloons  were  attached  to  each 
person?"  asked  the  Professor. 

"Three,"  we  all  said  together. 

"I  thought  so,"  he  continued,  "one  from  each 
armpit,  and  one  from  the  belt.  They  spoke  dis- 
tinguishable words.  Could  you  make  anything  out 
of  them  Erickson?" 

"Why,"  I  muttered  laconically,  quite  as  a  matter 
of  course,  "It  sounded  like  corrupted  or  archaic 
Hebrew." 

"By  the  Great  Horn  Spoon,"  shouted  Hopkins, 
"pawnbrokers.  Levitation  would  be  worth  while 
to  some  I've  known." 

After  this  explosion  we  were  silent  for  a  few 
moments.  Our  thoughts  were  running  wild  over 
the  inscrutable  occurrence  which  portended  strange 
developments  ahead  of  us.  Hopkins  was  elated  at 
the  prospect  of  adventure,  Goritz,  I  really  believe, 
was  consumed  with  a  passionate  curiosity  to  see 
more  of  the  gold,  the  Professor  was  burning  up 
with  scientific  wonder  and  excitement,  and  I  alone 


194  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

was  overcome  by  a  repulsion  which  I  could  not 
explain,  and  which,  on  the  face  of  it,  was  unreason- 
able. 

Communing  thus  with  our  thoughts  and  quite 
indescribably  stirred,  Hopkins  cried  out,  "Beat  it. 
Here  they  are  again,"  and  there,  rising  gently  from 
the  depth  below  our  elevation  came  the  little  flotilla 
of  bobbing  manikins,  announced  even  before  they 
were  seen,  by  a  shrill  chatter,  and  squealy  laughter, 
which  consorted  naturally  with  their  queer,  aged, 
wrinkled  faces,  the  fluttering  tunics  entangling 
their  pipe-stem  legs,  and  the  odd  diaphaneity  of 
their  bodies. 

I  am  not  a  naturalist,  Mr.  Link,  and  there  are 
some  things  in  nature  I  cannot  reconcile  myself  to: 
snakes,  caterpillars  and  BUGS. 

We  were  under  our  coverts  in  a  jiffy ;  the  celerity 
of  our  movement  was  something  like  the  noiseless 
tail-up  concealment  in  the  ground  of  prairie  dogs. 
And  our  eyes  became  as  active  as  our  legs;  not  an 
optic  nerve  but  was  strained  to  the  full  extent  of  its 
reportorial  powers.  One  feature  of  their  machin- 
ery, I  had  not  noticed  before.  Flexible  tubes  tied 
the  balloons  to  their  bodies,  and  these  again  were 
connected  under  the  sleeves  of  their  tunics  with  the 
lengths  of  pipe  they  carried  in  their  hands.  The 
swelling  and  deflation  of  these  balloons  seemed 
most  delicately  under  their  control,  and  at  times 
they  would,  like  a  swarm  of  flies,  rise  and  fall,  in  a 
perfect  mimicry  of  a  fly's  uneven  and  dancing  undu- 
lations. It  was  most  curious  and  utterly  inexplic- 
able, and  then  too  when  they  moved  to  and  fro  or 
advanced,  the  tubes  were  held  behind  them,  and 
some  propulsion  ensued  which  carried  them  on  their 
flight,  though  it  was  quite  evident  that  any  volition 
on  their  part  was  quite  overcome  by  the  prevalent 
currents  of  air.  The  latter  they  avoided  by  rising 
above  or  sinking  below  it,  and  at  the  moment,  as  we 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  195 

gazed,  they  surrendered  themselves  to  the  wind 
blowing  about  us  at  our  elevation,  and  were  tossed 
along  it,  in  shrill  enjoyment,  and  vanished  west- 
ward. They  were  absorbed  in  misty  veils  that 
were  drawn  between  us. 

Once  more  we  came  out  of  our  hiding  with  a  ludi- 
crous astonishment  painted  on  our  faces.  Hopkins 
looked  the  least  bit  scared.  Almost  instantly  he 
expressed  his  feelings. 

"They  certainly  have  me  guessing.  Old  guys,  all 
of  'em.  Perhaps  they're  terribly  old,  and  perhaps 
that's  the  way  up  here — everything  very  old 
shrinks,  wrinkles  and  wears  glasses." 

"Glasses,"  called  out  Goritz.  "Yes!  I  saw  that, 
and  do  you  know  for  more  than  a  week  my  eyes 
have  ached.  It's  something  to  do  with  this  strange 
light." 

Then  came  the  confession  from  all  of  us,  that  we 
had  each  been  bothered  with  our  eyes.  Shooting 
pains,  blurry  outlines,  whizzing  sensations  in  our 
heads,  and  a  sense  of  dryness  of  the  eyelids,  as 
though  they  had  been  overheated  by  a  mild  excema 
of  the  skin.  It  was  surprising,  the  moment  we 
attended  to  the  matter,  how  urgent  our  complaints 
became,  and  how  communicative  we  were  about  it. 

"I  feel  sure,"  said  Goritz,  "that  we  are  bewitched 
by  this  light.  These  odd  creatures  have  become 
crinkled  and  gnarled  by  it.  They're  a  race  of 
dwarfs,  prematurely  aged  and  megalocephalic." 

This  last  daring  incursion  into  the  Professor's 
domain  of  reserved  scientific  language  rather 
startled  us.  "  'Peaching  on  the  Professor's 
preserves,"  whispered  Hopkins.  But  the  Professor 
did  not  resent  it.  It  was  some  minutes  later,  after 
an  expectant  silence,  that  he  very  demurely  sug- 
gested that  we  all  put  on  our  snow  goggles.  And 
we  did.     It  seemed  to  help. 

Of  course,  considerably  flustered  over  the  unex- 


196  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

pected  appearance  in  this  utterly  unexpected  man- 
ner of  the  aboriginals  of  this  enigmatical  region, 
we  undertook  to  examine  the  narrow  and  deep  little 
valley  into  which  our  visitors  had  descended.  It 
was  a  rough  scramble,  as  the  sides  of  the  pit 
proved  not  only  very  steep  but  unreasonably  rocky, 
sharp  and  precipitous.  When  we  finally  reached 
the  bottom,  and  the  Professor  exultantly  told  us 
the  rock  was  a  dolomite,  that  it  contained  coral 
remains  and  brachiopodous  shells  that  were 
Devonian,  we  found  ourselves  in  a  peculiar  place. 

It  was  a  kind  of  gigantic  well,  on  the  floor  of 
which  and  to  one  side  were  situated  the  two  little 
lakes  we  had  seen  from  above.  Considerable 
water  flowed  into  them  from  crevices  in  the  walls, 
and  the  place  was  overshadowed  at  one  point  by  a 
projecting  ledge  that  formed  a  portico  to  a  caver- 
nous recess.  Leaden  colored  fish  rose  and  sank  in 
the  water  of  the  lakes,  and  we  thought  the  gulls, 
who  must  have  penetrated  to  this  remote  asylum 
from  Beaufort  Sea,  had  been  attracted  by  them. 
It  proved  to  be  a  dreary,  bare  hole  and  instilled  in 
us  a  feeling  half  despairing  and  melancholy. 

"This  isn't  the  gayest  place  in  the  world,"  said 
Hopkins.  "Our  insect  friends  certainly  didn't 
come  here  for  recreation.  Looks  like  a  smuggler's 
retreat,  or  a  den  of  crime.  Perhaps  we  may  find 
here  some  enchanted  troubadour,  a  chained  damsel, 
a  lurking  dragon,  or  the  fountain  of  eternal  youth, 
which  those  cadaverous  anchorites  we  saw  upstairs 
visit  occasionally  to  keep  the  life  in  their  shivering 
shells.     Or—" 

"What's  this?"  exclaimed  Goritz,  his  mufiled 
voice  proceeding  from  the  recess  into  which  he  had 
penetrated,  entering  its  prolongation,  which  became 
a  sort  of  cave. 

We  rushed  forward,  all  keyed  now  to  an  excited 
limit  of  curiosity,  so  that,  as  Hopkins  expressed  it 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  197 

afterwards,  "an  invitation  from  the  angel  Gabriel 
to  step  into  Paradise,  wouldn't  have  phased  us  much, 
in  fact  would  have  been  an  ordinary  incident  in  our 
investigations." 

"What  is  it,  Antoine?"  I  cried  as  I  reached  him 
and  found  him  gazing  in  bewilderment  at  a  shining 
nodule  of  something  ahead  of  him,  in  the  deeper 
gloom  within.  I  asked  no  more  questions,  but 
stood  still  with  him,  wondering.  The  others  came 
up  and  we  all  gazed  awhile,  transfixed  by  a  common 
astonishment. 

The  glowing  mass,  perhaps  about  the  size  of  a 
baby's  closed  hand,  shed  a  mellow  radiance  about 
the  cave;  its  light  draped  our  own  figures,  and  it 
was  reflected  from  innumerable  bright  points  which 
spangled  here  and  there  on  the  floor  and  walls  like 
minute  lamps. 

"Diamonds,"  murmured  Goritz,  awestruck. 

The  place  was  heated,  and  the  light  made  us 
shade  our  eyes.  The  Professor  had  moved  alertly 
forward  in  an  impulse  of  almost  desperate  joy.  He 
stood  in  wrapt  contemplation  of  the  luminiferous 
chunk,  then  he  struck  one  of  the  scintillating  pro- 
jections, a  piece  detached  itself,  and  showered  some 
splinters  through  the  air  to  the  ground.  The 
splinters  shimmered  like  microscopic  mirrors. 

''Sphalerite,''  he  cried.  "Zinc  sulphide!  This 
is  literally  a  chamber  of  Sphalerite,  a  huge  pocket 
enclosed  in  the  limestone.  It  has  been  worked 
somewhat;  its  extension  in  the  rock  is  probably 
very  deep;  and,  gentlemen,"  this  apostrophe  ac- 
companied by  upraised  hands,  palms  supplicatingly 
held  towards  us,  always  denoted  some  especially 
disturbing  or  exhilarating  announcement,  "this 
light  proceeds  from  some  natural  phosphori.  It 
may  be,"  he  paused  to  allow  our  minds  to  adjust 
themselves  to  a  new  attitude  of  marveling,  "it  may 
be  RADIUM.     We  are  in  a  world  of  transmuta- 


198  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

tions,  the  home  of  the  Stone  of  the  Philosopher. 
In  the  world  we  have  left — "  the  language  was 
positive,  convincing,  for  now  the  feeling  of  trans- 
lation from  all  the  familiarities  of  the  world  of 
Europe  and  America  grew  persistently,  even 
though  plants  and  animals  expressed  a  similar  life — 
"in  that  world,  the  combined  product  of  all  its 
mines,  of  all  its  laboratories,  scarcely  exceeds  Two 
Grammes.  Here  is  perhaps  four  ounces,  or  the 
Quarter  of  a  Pound,  and — " 

It  was  then  that  a  black  clot,  shaping  itself  in 
irregular  fingers  with  blue  and  yellow  fringes  revolv- 
ing raggedly  around  it  closed  my  eyes.  But  before 
vision  departed,  I  saw  the  Professor  clutch  his 
breast,  stagger  forward,  and  I  heard  him  cry,  "Out, 
out!"  and  then  I  felt  my  knees  stung  by  the 
pointed  stones  and,  blindly  groping,  I  crawled  away. 

It  was  later,  I  do  not  know  how  long,  that  I 
recovered  my  sight  and  around  me,  languid  and 
prostrate;  though  reviving  as  I  was,  were  my 
comrades. 

"Transmutation?"  said  Hopkins,  feebly  smiling. 
"It  was  pretty  nearly  a  transference  over  the  river, 
and  no  return  trip-slip  either." 

"Heaven!  How  my  head  aches,"  groaned  Goritz. 

"Gentlemen,"  the  Professor  gurgled,  flat  on  his 
back  and  sicker  than  any  of  us,  but  with  his  scien- 
tific apparatus  under  control  and  working  smoothly, 
"we  are  on  the  eve  of  great  discoveries.  The 
papers  which  I  can  prepare  for  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Sciences  will  throw  a  flood  of  light  on  a  subject 
hitherto  only  darkly  approached.  I  am  confident 
that  we  were  in  the  presence  of  a  monstrous — 
monstrous  comparatively,  you  observe — mass  of 
radium.  Further,  I  feel  sure  that  the  Stationary 
Sun  that  maintains  a  perpetual  day  in  this  remark- 
able land  has  something  to  do  with  radium  emana- 
tions from  the  Interior  of  the  Earth!" 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  199 

The  poor  gentleman  stopped  abruptly,  some 
peculiar  evidences  of  his  own  interior  activity  just 
then  making  him  roll  over  and  refrain  from  speech, 
because  he  was  otherwise  engaged. 

"Do  you  suppose,"  asked  Hopkins,  "that  those 
aeronautical  hairpins  left  that  gold  brick  inside 
there?" 

"Certainly,"  answered  the  dilapidated  Goritz. 
"And  they  were  up  to  something  curious  perhaps. 
Why,  somehow  I  can  only  think  of  Aladdin  and  the 
lamp  in  the  Arabian  Nights.     You  remember  it?" 

"Of  course,  Antoine,  but  you  see  there  are  devil- 
ments here  that  are  not  so  very  beguiling  or  so  very 
profitable.  At  any  rate  let  us  get  out  of  here. 
The  wind  has  risen;  a  storm  is  coming  on.  The 
darkness  above  looks  interesting;  in  this  hole  it 
will  be  just  stupidly  pitch  black.  I  feel  half 
suffocated  in  this  pit.  There  isn't  a  very  promising 
chance  for  our  survival  if  we  go  on  into  this  radium 
land,  with  a  sun  made  of  radium,  when  a  handful 
turns  us  into  puppets  and  pretty  nearly  into 
corpses.  I  say  leave  it,  leave  it  all.  It's  madness 
to  go  farther." 

"You  are  mistaken — mistaken,"  interrupted  the 
Professor,  who  had  regained  his  composure.  "The 
proximity — the  reflections — our  own  unadapta- 
bility — fatigue — the  closeness  of  the  confined 
space  and  the — the — unmitigated  monotony  of  our 
food  made  us  ill.  No — no — We  must  see  it  all. 
It  will  be  the  miracle  of  the  century." 

He  gasped  out  his  remonstrance  and  explanations 
in  dissected  sentences  that  measurably  restored  my 
good  humor,  so  funny  were  they.  A  little  later 
and  we  had  set  about  getting  back  to  the  balsams 
on  the  cliff  top,  and  to  the  small  shelter  we  had  so 
far  managed  to  construct,  and  whose  protection  in 
a  storm  seemed  very  attractive.  The  storm  itself 
in    these   strange   quarters   promised    new   scenic 


200  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

effects,  and  its  meteorological  features  might 
exceed  all  possible  anticipation.  Three  of  us  had 
become  ecstatically  anxious  to  see  everything,  one 
of  us  (myself)  shrank  from  his  own  baleful  premoni- 
tion of  the  future. 

But  we  had  reached  the  height,  and  the  freshness 
of  the  air  restored  our  equanimity,  and  made  our 
strength  whole  again,  and  before  us,  with  slow 
divulgementsof  unusual  grandeur,  spread  the  black 
skirts  of  a  storm.  But  it  was  not  over  us,  though 
patches  of  cloud  were  streaming  from  the  west  in 
hurrying  phalanxes,  dun,  disordered,  driven,  as  if 
under  orders.  And  far  off,  beneath,  it  almost 
seemed,  that  strange  stationary  sun  now  half 
eclipsed,  the  hurlyburly  of  an  inordinate  atmos- 
pheric disturbance  was  visibly  in  operation. 

The  impression  almost  instantly  made  was  that 
of  a  cyclonic  movement — a  suction  of  the  air  into 
the  maelstrom  center  of  a  revolution  that  was  gath- 
ering from  the  four  quarters  reinforcements  of 
cloud  and  wind.  A  dull  yellow  light  shone  through 
occasional  gaps  in  the  aerial  concourse  of  vapors, 
fish-gray  chasms  opened  out  at  moments  as  if  torn 
apart  by  uprushing  or  irrepressible  volumes  of 
wind,  and,  lit  up  by  sharper  flashes,  they  would 
suddenly  evert,  pouring  out  in  boiling  currents 
torrential  black  clouds.  Then  a  cap  of  darkness 
seemed  to  descend,  and  yet  in  the  remnants  of  light 
that  stuck  here  and  there  to  the  flanks  of 
this  mountainous  obscuration,  we  could  see  the 
multitudinous  scurr>'ings,  windings  and  colli- 
sions of  the  smoking  flails  and  banks  and  missiles 
of  cloud. 

Below  this  indivisible  commotion,  between  it  and 
what  seemed  the  earth,  stole  or  lay  a  stratum  of 
light,  and  into  this,  slowly  evolving  like  a  gigantic 
corkscrew  from  the  storm  above,  grew  downwards, 
streaked  with  black,  pillars  of  condensation,  that 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  201 

were  nothing  else  than  water-spouts,  terrible 
tornadoes  in  traveling  helices,  erect,  inclined,  and 
stalking  towards  and  away  from  each  other  like 
watery  titans. 

We  thought  we  even  saw  their  conjunction  and 
dispersal,  but  what  was  visibly  secure  in  the  picture 
was  the  ascent  heavenward  of  an  intolerably  wild 
dust  avalanche.     The  whiteness,  for  such  it  seemed 
smote  and  penetrated  the  clouds;    it  swerved  and 
was  beaten  into  straight  ribbons  of  livid  light   or 
mingling  universally,  adulterated  the  inky  burden 
with    a    spurious    ghastly    filminess.     Flashes    of 
lightning  (a  rare  phenomenon  in  the  north)  that 
must  have  been  terrific  in  intensity  and  portentous 
in  size  bit  through  the  darkness,  and   rumblings 
reached  us  from  the  remote  conflict.     Then  ag- 
glomeration and  colossal  curdlings  and  it  all  was 
swallowed  up  in  night! 

We  talked  long  that  night  upon  the  excitements 
ot  the  last  ten  hours,  and  it  was  plain  to  each  one  of 
us  that  we  were  again  approaching  descents  to 
parts  still  farther  below  the  levels  already  passed  ; 
mat  the  storm  was  over  a  distant  depression ;   that 
in  the  last  day  or  two  the  actinic  power  of  that 
strange  radiance   that   lurked   somewhere   in   the 
skies  over  this  depression  was  becoming  stronger 
and  more  intolerable;    that  we  might  expect  to 
find  the  incredible  influences  of  Radium  in  all  this; 
that  perhaps  in  some  way  that  Sun  we  saw,  we  felt' 
which  was  the  photal  center,  provocation  and  cause 
of  the  plant  life  around  us,  and  through  which  we 
had   passed,  was  now  limiting  or  suppressing  if 
the  unmistakable  dust  or  sand  tornado  showed  a 
desert  region  before  us.     Then,  too,  we  discussed 
the  poverty  of  the  faunal  life,  now  growing  thinner 
smaller,    more    depressed    as    we    advanced,    the 
sallowness  of  the  grass,  the  blueness  of  leafage,  the 
anemic  pinkiness  of  the  heather,  our  own  tortured 


202  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

feelings  of  alternate  hope  and  apathy,  of  well  being 
and  of  sickishness. 

The  bleaching,  killing  effect  of  this  radium  light 
(so  we  called  It)  was  partially  overcome  by  the 
rainfall  which  operated  favorably  for  the  plants. 
In  hunting  the  small  deer,  and  even  they  became 
more  infrequent,  we  noticed  that  they  occupied  the 
shadowed  sides  of  the  hills  and,  in  this  stationary 
light,  these  shadowed  sides  remained  almost 
unchanged.  I  say  almost,  because  it  became  more 
and  more  apparent  that  the  stationary  Sun  stirred. 
It  rose  or  fell  or  approached  or  receded.  There 
was  some  fluctuation  too  in  its  light.  It  was  not  a 
lamp  hung  in  the  sky  but  an  aura  that  floated  in- 
constantly over  or  around  some  central  pivotal, 
causal  spot,  that  varied  also  in  its  emanations. 

Should  we  go  on?  I  was  silent.  Overwhelming 
as  might  seem  the  inducements  to  break  through 
the  veil  of  the  mystery  before  us  I  hesitated — No, 
I  recoiled.  But  this  was  flagrant  treachery  to  the 
spirit  and  ambition  of  exploration.  So  I  was 
silent.  Goritz  dreaming  of  his  Ophir  and  Gol- 
conda,  was  impatient  to  hurry  on.  Hopkins  felt 
that  there  was  nothing  else  to  do;  his  doggerel 
helped  him  out: 

"  'What  matters  it  how  far  we  go?'  his  scaly 

friend  replied, 
There  is  another  shore,  you  know,  upon  the 

other  side." 

But  the  Professor  was  resolute.  Here  were  all 
his  predictions  fulfilled — the  vortical  polar  pit,  the 
warmth,  the  aborigines,  Eden  reminiscences  (he 
referred  to  the  Crocodilo-Python)  and  now,  what, 
so  he  modestly  admitted,  he  had  never  dreamed  of, 
the— 

METROPOLIS  OF  RADIUM. 

Go  on?    Of  course. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Pine  Tree  Gredin 

After  we  had  jerked  some  of  the  deer  meat,  fear- 
ing that  the  diminishing  chances  for  game  would 
leave  us  unsupplied,  and  as  yet  quite  mystified  as 
to  where  or  when  we  would  engage  the  pygmy 
people,  we  took  up  our  loads  and  went  on.  The 
storm  whose  gyrating  fury  had  absorbed  our  atten- 
tion had  raged  itself  away,  though  it  was  some 
thirty-six  hours  before  it  cleared,  and,  slowly  liber- 
ated from  the  thickly  wrapt  curtains  of  gloom,  the 
now  more  and  more  obvious  sun  shone  again.  The 
upland  we  were  crossing  caused  us  many  perplexities. 
The  numerous  broad  troughs  and  depressions,  the 
tracts  of  tangled  dead  bushes  and  the  hedges, 
resembling  "pressure  ridges"  of  ice,  which  had  been 
somehow  shaped  by  prevalent  winds  into  long 
fences  of  scraggly,  prostrate  trees,  were  increas- 
ingly interspersed  with  sandy  expanses,  which  we 
interpreted  as  the  melancholy  presages  of  a  desert 
area  beyond. 

The  average  elevation  was  level,  with  a  tendency 
to  fall  as  we  advanced.  We  expected  daily  to  reach 
some  abrupt  drop  which  would  announce  our  de- 
scent into  the  "last  hole  of  the  Golf  Links,"  to 
quote  Hopkins.  The  scheme  of  Krocker  Land 
grew  daily  more  and  more  convincingly  simple. 
Whatever  limital  lines  embraced  it,  it  was  a  sort  of 
amphitheater,  with  the  serial  displacements  up  or 

203 


204  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

down  which  we  had  already  traversed  succeeding 
each  other  concentrically;  it  was  temperate  in 
climate;  it  might  become  torrid  because  of  its 
inclusion  in  the  deeper  parts  of  the  earth's  crust,  or 
because,  even  more  probably,  it  was  situated  over 
some  residual  uncooled  igneous  magma.  It  was 
encircled,  we  assumed,  by  the  profound  crevice 
we  had  bridged  below  the  Rim,  and  its  extra- 
ordinary sun  which  gave  light  and  heat  was  practi- 
cally concealed  from  external  detection  by  the 
gigantic  vaporous  wall  of  the  "Perpetual  Nimbus," 
endlessly  created  by  steaming  and  evaporation  from 
the  crevice  itself,  reinforced,  too,  by  the  turbulence 
of  the  general  atmosphere,  which  for  days  and  days 
had  presented  a  turmoil,  or  else  a  dead  waste,  of 
cloud-filled  skies. 

We  thought  of  that  outer  world  now  slowly — 
nay,  rapidly — succumbing  to  the  tightening  grip  of 
frost  and  snow  and  ice,  now  again  dark  or  visible 
only  in  that  strange  sepulchral  glow  of  aurora  and 
stars;  of  that  vast  Arctic  desolation,  the  shrouded 
corpse  of  a  world,  and  of  the  gathering  legions  of 
snowfiakes  endlessly  dropping  or  whirling  from  the 
blue-black  empyrean;  of  the  ice  pack  formed  like 
a  vise  around  the  empty,  tenantless  shores,  and 
groaning  under  the  lash  of  the  winds  or  the  tyrran- 
nous  push  of  the  tides;  of  the  distant  eastern 
Arctic  lands,  pale  with  ghost  lights  over  glacier 
and  mountain,  inland  ice,  trackless  coasts,  black 
rock-bound  capes  and  the  blue  domed  igloo  of  the 
Eskimo;  a  land  hallowed  to  thought  by  heroism; 
on  whose  barren  plains  the  monuments  to  the  dead 
rise  in  the  wastes  feebly  to  tell  of  devotion,  courage 
past  knowledge  to  measure,  faithfulness;  where 
the  polar  bear  and  the  walrus  alone  maintain 
nature's  plea  against  utter  death. 

How  those  thoughts  contrasted  with  all  this 
around  us,  an  undulating  oasis  in  the  polar  desert, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  205 

where  now  indeed  the  antipodes  drew  near  in  some 
strange  new  development  of  sand  and  aridity. 
Somehow  this  latter  notion  clung  persistently.  It 
was  partly  due,  no  doubt,  to  a  natural  ascription  of 
deadly  power  in  the  inexplicable  Sun,  whose 
strength  each  mile  was  revealed  in  a  more  deadly 
manner;  in  part  also  to  the  decrescence  of  life, 
now  noticeable  in  many  ways.  There  was  a  paling 
and  bleaching  of  the  herbage,  and  for  miles  and 
miles  the  movements  of  insects  were  almost  absent, 
while  the  deer  vanished,  and  only  moles  or  shrews 
were  occasionally  detected  in  the  crookedly  ridged 
ground. 

It  was  after  five  days'  continuous  struggle  over 
the  back  of  this  lumpy  and  semi-mountainous  re- 
gion, whose  charm  for  us  had  long  before  disap- 
peared, and  when  the  sharpest  scrutiny  no  longer 
disclosed  the  little  deer  whose  succulent  steaks  and 
chops  had  kept  us  happy  and  well,  eeked  out  with 
water,  and  the  still  persistent  berry  I  have  men- 
tioned, that  we  reached  the  edge  of  a  new  descent. 
Shielding  ourselves  in  a  low  coppice  of  bushes  from 
the  peculiar  light,  which  was  sensibly  increasing  in 
strength  and  which  seemed  less  softened  by  the 
interposition  of  veils  of  mist  and  cloud,  we  could 
just  see,  like  a  black  ribbon  painted  along  the 
horizon,  a  zone  of  tree  tops. 

"TREES,"  we  shouted  joyously. 

"Yes,  they  are  trees,"  after  a  while  came  the 
affirmative  assurance.  The  Professor  was  studying 
them  with  our  field  glass. 

"They  are  trees,  of  some  narrow  leaved  or 
coniferous  genus.  They  are  so  densely,  darkly 
gathered  together.  A  wood  now  would  indeed  be 
welcome,  but  we  are  fated  for  a  rather  trying 
march  over  another  desert.  I  can  see  a  sand  plain 
stretching  away  ahead  of  us,  terminating  perhaps  in 
this  new  region  beyond.     I  have  a  strong  presenti- 


206  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

ment  that  this  wood  forms  the  last  screen  to  the 
grand  revelation  we  are  certain  to  be  vouchsafed. 
It  surrounds  the  home  of  the  RADIUMITES." 

"That's  a  cheerful  view  of  it,  Professor,  and  not  a 
bad  name.  And  if  we  are  getting  as  warm  as  all  that 
don't  you  think  we  might  conjure  up  some  plan  of 
operation  before  we  meet  these — these — electrons! 
How's  that,  Erickson?  You  see  I  have  a  talking 
acquaintance  with  Science  after  all,  even  if  I  haven't 
got  so  far  as  to  call  her  by  her  first  name.  Electrons 
and  Radiumites  are  rather  related  terms.     Eh?" 

"Well,"  I  said,  "Hopkins'  suggestion  is  surely  a 
wise  one.  These  remarkable  creatures  have  ob- 
tained some  curious  insight  into  chemical  laws. 
They  are  our  masters  if  we  meet  them.  Before  we 
can  do  a  thing  they  will  transfix  us  with  chemical 
ions,  or  something  like  them,  and  decompose  us  into 
our  original  elements.  I've  been  thinking  about 
those  little  lead  pipes  they  carried.  I  saw  them 
press  them  and  wave  them,  and  whenever  they  did 
either,  something  happened;  they  went  up  and 
down,  or  any  way  else,  as  they  wished.  The 
balloons  were  not  so  very  small;  they  appeared,  I 
think,  smaller  than  they  really  were,  and  they  did 
look  too  small  to  lift  their  loads,  little  and  light  as 
they  seemed,  even  if  they  contained  our  lightest 
gas-hydrogen.  I  tell  you  they've  refined  methods 
in  radio-chemistry  perhaps,  that  enable  them  to 
generate  an  even  lighter  gas,  and  its  buoyancy  is 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  gas  volumes  represented 
in  these  small  balloons.  These  little  men  are  for- 
midable savants,  who  may  get  rid  of  us,  if  they  want 
to,  like  that,"  and  I  snapped  my  fingers. 

This  harangue  stirred  the  Professor.  I  meant  it 
should.  His  hair,  which  now  seemed  almost 
redder  than  when  we  started,  and  had  grown  so 
that  it  enveloped  his  head  in  a  penumbral  glory, 
like  a  sunset  fire,  rose,  as  it  were,  to  the  occasion. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  207 

"Erickson,"  he  retorted,  "put  away  your  fears. 
The  very  fact  of  the  intellectual  promotion  of  these 
people  would  make  it  certain  that  they  have  aban- 
doned savage  ways,  and  that  they  would  recognize 
in  us,  to  say  the  least,"  it  may  be  the  Professor 
blushed  slightly,  though  the  rufescent  splendor  of 
his  hair  disguised  it,  "representatives  of  a  culture 
that  will  excite  their  curiosity,  their — Ahem — 
envy.  Personally  I  feel  confident  that — Ahem — 
once  some  sort  of  communication  is  established 
between  us,  I  can  interest  them.  I  should  feel 
honored  even  to  present  their  contributions  to 
science  before  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  at 
Stockholm.  In  the  hierarchy  of  scientific  authors 
their  names  would  arrest  the  attention  of  the  whole 
earth." 

After  this  flight  there  was  a  respectful  pause, 
until  Hopkins  resumed : 

"Say  Professor,  the  particular  culture  that 
would  impress  them  most  now  would  be  a  wash,  a 
clean  shirt,  a  shave  and  a  haircut.     Eh?" 

The  Professor  contemptuously  ignored  the 
interruption,  though  a  furtively  repressed  approach 
of  laughter  on  his  face  showed  his  appreciation  of 
its  justice.     We  were  indeed  frights. 

"And,  Alfred,  as  to  your  suggestion  of  a  gas 
lighter  than  hydrogen  in  the  balloons,  perhaps  you 
are  aware  that  so  far  as  the  apparent  transmutation 
of  the  elements  permits  any  conclusions  in  the  mat- 
ter, hydrogen  has  hitherto  yielded  only  helium, 
neon,  carbon  and  sulphur,  all  heavier  bodies.  I 
don't  say  you  are  not  right.  It's  tremendously 
interesting.  However,  you  may  have  underesti- 
mated the  size  of  the  balloons  and  over-estimated 
the  weight  of  the  little  men.  They  had  a  very 
papery  look  to  me,  and  of  course,  "the  Professor 
always  had  this  pragmatic  style  of  insisting  you 
knew,   when    he   was   inwardly  crowing  over   his 


208  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

chance  of  illuminating  your  ignorance,  "you  know 
that  the  levitation  of  hydrogen  equals  seventy 
pounds  to  one  thousand  cubic  feet  of  gas — at 
ordinary  pressures.  Those  balloons  were  larger 
than  they  seemed;  some  reflexion  in  the  air 
diminished  them,  and  really  those  aged  infants, 
I  believe,  scarcely  exceeded  thirty  pounds  in  weight. 
Do  you  know,"  he  became  excitedly  radiant, 
"perhaps  their  tenuity  has  some  relation  to  their 
intellectual  development — they  represent  some 
final  stage  of  human  evolution,  when  the  body 
shrinks,  and  the  mind  enlarges,  and — " 

"The  teeth  drop  out,"  suggested  Hopkins. 

"True,  Mr.  Hopkins.  Professor  Wurtz  has 
pointed  out  the  probable  absorption  of  the  teeth 
or  their  disappearance  under  the  debilitating 
influence  of  mental  growth.  These  people  may  live 
solely  on  saps,  juices,  milks,  liquids,  extracts." 

This  tickled  Hopkins  boundlessly,  and  he  rattled 
away — I  don't  know  whether  it  was  quotation  or 
improvisation: 

"Really  I  hesitate  to  say, 

What  they  promise  now  some  day, 

When  learning  and  brain 

Are  fit  for  the  strain, 

Of  telling  the  Truth  to  a  hair. 

"For  the  Docs  have  puzzled  it  out. 

And  there  isn't  a  reason  to  doubt, 

That  we'll  lose  all  our  grinders. 

All  our  gold-plugged  reminders. 

Of  the  toothache  that  taught  us  to  swear. 

"It's  a  case  of  gray  matter  and  such. 
Though  for  that  we  need  not  care  much, 
For — cocktails  and  chowder  for  lunch, 
Soft  drinks,  sangaree,  and  rum  punch 
Will  surely  be  living  for  fair." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  209 

"Come,"  growled  Goritz,  "this  sort  of  nonsense 
isn't  getting  us  anywhere.  Strap  up  your  packs 
and  get  out  of  this.  The  chances  for  grub  ahead 
are  not  the  best  in  the  world.  The  country  is 
already  as  bare  as  a  cleared  table,  and  what  are  we 
going  to  do  for  water?" 

That  was  a  disagreeable  predicament.  Hitherto 
the  springs,  little  tarns  or  water  holes,  though  de- 
creasing in  number  as  we  advanced,  had  fully  met 
our  requirements,  but  if  we  were  to  cross  any  con- 
siderable dry  tract  we  might  be  seriously  imperiled. 
To  be  sure,  the  limestone  country  if  prolonged 
would  almost  certainly  feed  us,  but  that  desert 
land  which  our  closest  inspection  of  the  distance 
only  made  more  unquestionable —  How  about  that? 

The  conclusion  we  came  to  was  to  husband  all 
the  resources  we  could  command.  It  sounded 
grandiloquent — our  resources!  What  were  they? 
Some  patches  of  jerked  deer's  meat,  our  fryingpan 
and  pot,  the  remnant  of  our  improvised  tent  and 
our  knapsacks,  almost  empty  except  for  the 
instruments,  a  few  necessary  implements,  the 
ammunition,  still  sufificient,  and  our  guns.  Our 
clothing  was  desperately  worn.  Literally,  we  were 
in  rags,  but  a  primitive  kind  of  treatment  in  water, 
from  time  to  time,  had  freed  this  dejected  apparel 
of  at  least  a  large  percentage — I  really  think  a 
preponderant  percentage — of  its  dirt.  The  ques- 
tion of  water  remained  urgent. 

In  about  a  day  or  so  we  came  upon  the  outlines  of 
the  desert  plain — scrappy  expanses  of  sand  and 
pebbles — mostly  angular,  and  we  noted  the  dust 
occasionally  sweeping  heavenward  in  yellow  clouds 
but  still  we  thought  we  also  saw  the  dark  farther 
zone  of  trees.  Our  horizon  was  now  more  limited ; 
we  had  descended  some  fifteen  hundred  feet,  and 
the  advantage  of  an  elevated  circumspection  was 
denied  us.     The  professor  determined  the  sand  to 


210  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

be  a  pulverulent  shattered  and  crumbling  lime- 
stone, and  although  absorbent  and  apparently 
deeply  bedded  he  believed  we  could,  almost  any- 
where, upon  digging  find  water.  This  was  en- 
couraging, and  the  trip  over  this  tawny  and  some- 
times dazzling  waste  seemed  less  formidable.  The 
light  became  peculiarly  tantalizing  and  objection- 
able, and  we  were  thankful  enough  for  the  goggles. 
After  deliberation  we  made  up  the  canvas  of  our 
little  tent,  which  we  still  retained,  into  bags  (we  had 
pack  thread  and  sailors'  needles)  and  expected  to 
use  them  as  water  carriers.  Then  we  trapped  a 
few  moles,  though  recourse  to  this  unpalatable 
flesh  would  only  be  considered  in  an  extremity,  and 
then,  not  without  foreboding,  we  started  over  the 
pallid  desert. 

We  soon  came  upon  traces  of  the  great  storm 
which  we  had  watched  from  the  Deer  Fels.  These 
were  unmistakable.  Deep  gouges  had  been  made 
in  the  sand  by  the  volleying  and  cutting  winds,  but 
the  most  extraordinary  vestiges  of  its  violence  were 
the  conical  hills  of  sand,  raised  over  the  surface  in 
huge  mammilary  erections.  These  were  dis- 
tributed with  a  very  striking  evenness,  except  at 
spots,  where  it  would  seem  the  moving  hills  in  their 
translation  had  closed  upon  one  another,  and, 
demolished  in  the  collisions,  left  formless  congeries 
of  tossed  and  sprawling  heaps,  which  might  have  a 
length  of  a  mile  or  more,  and  were  from  half  to  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  in  width.  They  were  disagree- 
able obstacles,  and  ploughing  through  them  was  the 
hardest  kind  of  work,  for  the  surfaces  were 
composed  of  a  deep  deposit  of  minute  grains  and 
dust  and  our  feet  sank  into  them  as  quickly  as 
though  we  were  engaged  in  a  plunge  through  a 
colossal  flour  bin  or  a  wheat  pit. 

But  our  complaints  and  discouragements  were 
providentially  rebuked.     Fighting  our  way  up  and 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  211 

down  these  dry  quagmires  of  dust,  stumbling, 
falling  and  not  infrequently  assisting  to  extricate 
one  another  from  the  floury  embrace,  we  had  come 
to  the  crest  of  a  ridge  which  crossed  diagonally  one 
of  these  shapeless,  tortuous  mounds.  This  ridge, 
over  the  mean  level  of  the  plain,  was  almost  twenty 
feet  high,  a  good  measure  of  the  strength  of  the 
wind  suction  which  had  built  it  up.  We  were  dusty, 
almost  exhausted,  and  the  water  we  had  carefully 
conserved,  as  best  we  might  (for  the  bags  were  not 
watertight)  in  our  canvas  receptacles,  was  ap- 
proaching a  dangerous  depletion.  It  was  abso- 
lutely necessary,  fight  against  it  as  we  might,  to 
wash  our  mouths  and  throats,  clogged  and  asperate 
as  they  were  with  the  grains  and  dust,  quite  often, 
or,  it  seems  to  me,  we  would  have  been  suffocated. 
What  gratitude  we  felt  you  may  imagine,  when,  on 
surmounting  the  ridge,  our  eyes  fell  upon  a  small 
pool  of  water  entrapped  upon  some  impervious 
bottom,  in  a  natural  bowl,  enclosed  by  the  ridge  on 
which  we  halted  and  a  lower  ridge  beyond  us.  The 
familiar  thought  of  how  it  transcended  in  value 
any  imaginable  wealth  of  gold  and  diamonds  at  that 
moment  flashed,  I  guess,  through  all  of  our  minds. 
We  camped  there.  The  water  was  clear  and  cool, 
for,  I  should  have  mentioned  it,  the  weather  had 
been  colder,  and,  when  our  "fixed  Sun,"  as  Goritz 
called  it  was  hidden,  we  suffered  somewhat  from 
imperfect  protection. 

"Queer  we  don't  hit  any  more  of  those  weird 
phantoms  that  own  this  place,  isn't  it?"  said  Hop- 
kins. 

"Oh,"  I  replied,  "they  may  be  watching  us  now, 
listening  to  us.  You  can't  tell.  I  think  they're  a 
sort  of  supernatural  people  that  can  do  almost  any- 
thing. Perhaps  they  wear  magic  cloaks,  hats, 
shoes,  that  make  them  invisible.  Speak  easy  when 
you    meet    'em    Spruce,    and    don't   abuse    them 


212  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

behind  their  backs,  for — it  may  be — to  their 
faces.'' 

"Look  here,  Alfred,  I  really  believe  you've 
loosened  a  nut  in  that  tight  little  head  of  yours. 
To  hear  you  talk  gets  on  my  nerves.  Don't  do  it. 
Hasn't  the  Professor  explained  it  all  as  Evolution, 
and  how  exceedingly  friendly  these  fine  folk  will  be 
to  us  when  they  get  a  bead  on  our  own  families. 
As  for  speaking  easy,  I  shan't  speak  at  all.  With 
me  it's  the  case  of  Pat  once  again,  and  I  couldn't 
get  even  as  far  as  he  did  with  the  Frenchman  with 
his  "Parlez  vous  francaise,  and — give  me  the  loan 
of  your  gridiron.'' 

"Alfred,"  asked  the  Professor,  "could  you  talk 
with  them,  if  it  turns  out  that  their  language  is 
Hebrew?" 

"Certainly,"  I  answered,  "I  am  a  Jew,  and  my 
earliest  training  has  never  been  forgotten.  I  have 
been  hugging  the  thought  that  I  can  understand 
them  or  make  them  understand  me.  I  grant, 
along  traditional  lines  there  was  something  Hebraic 
in  their  looks." 

"Yes  Alfred — this,"  said  Hopkins,  touching  his 
nose. 

We  laughed,  but  the  Professor  stared  at  me 
thoughtfully. 

"Alfred,"  at  length  he  solemnly  began,  "the 
Vestiges  of  Creation —     Who  knows  but — " 

The  sentence  was  never  finished  and  to  this  day 
I  only  dimly  suspect  the  lurking  and  indefinable 
thought  that  those  world-dreams  of  the  past,  with 
Eden  placed  at  the  North  Pole,  and  a  still  more 
irreclaimable  theory  of  a  residual  population 
descending  from  some  God-made  primal  ancestor, 
confusedly  rose  in  the  Professor's  mind,  and  that 
he  was  groping  his  way  to  express  this  cryptic  and 
impossible  illusion. 

No!      the     Professor     was     probably     utterly 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  213 

stunned  into  dumbness,  as  we  were  made  half  wild 
with  wonder  by  a  cry  from  Goritz : 

"SEE!  Over  there  are  the  head  and  arm  of  a 
dead  man  sticking  out  through  the  sand." 

We  jumped  to  our  feet,  followed  with  our  eyes 
his  stiffened,  outstretched  arm  and  rigid  finger,  and 
saw  the  chubby  face  of  a  corpse,  with  closed  eyes, 
streaming  black  hair,  pushed  out  from  a  blanket  of 
sand,  while  an  arm  with  a  clenched  hand  was  pro- 
truding from  the  same  covering.  For  a  moment — 
perhaps  for  several — we  remained  motionless, 
perusing  the  face  which  was  so  astonishingly  con- 
trasted with  the  lineaments  of  the  diminutive 
aeronautical  philosophers,  and  noting  too  the  con- 
vexity of  the  earth  covering  the  body,  which  indi- 
cated a  man  or  woman,  of  an  average  size  or  a  little 
undersized.  What  struck  each  one  of  us  at  once 
was  the  unmistakable  Eskimo  type,  the  narrow 
eyes,  small  joufflu  nose,  wide  mouth,  puffed 
cheeks,  low  forehead  and  coarse,  straggling  and 
profuse  hair. 

A  little  later  and  we  had  dug  out  of  his  grave  the 
astounding  figure.  When  it  was  uncovered  it 
corroborated  all  our  first  impressions  as  to  its 
Eskimo  relationship,  but  we  then  detected  that  its 
construction  was  more  slender  and  generally  better 
proportioned,  and  the  beardless  face  was  more 
refinedly  cut.  Its  dress  was  a  yellow  gown  or  tunic 
over  very  loose  bluish  trousers,  and  its  feet  were 
encased  in  roughly  made  loose  slippers,  fastened  by 
laces  or  strings  over  the  instep.  The  material  of 
the  dress  was  a  woven  wool.  The  tunic  was 
clasped  by  a  broad  belt  of  the  same  substance, 
fastened  by  a  leaden  buckle;  the  trousers  were  held 
in  at  the  bottom  by  a  kind  of  anklet  of  bone  and 
skin,  and  the  sleeves  of  the  tunic  were  similarly 
confined. 

But  perhaps  it  was  the  buckle  that  excited  our 


214  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

curiosity  the  most,  for  there  was  engraved — not 
embossed — on  it  the  same  serpent  and  crocodile- 
hke  figure  that  had  been  seen  on  the  gold  buckle 
Goritz  found,  and  over  it  too  were  the  singular 
conventions  of  a  branched  tree  encircled  by  a 
snake.  Goritz  compared  his  belt  and  buckle  with 
it  and  was  convinced  of  their  identical  interpreta- 
tion. Nothing  else  was  found.  We  detected  no 
pockets  of  any  sort  in  the  clothing —  Yes,  there  was 
something  else,  from  under  the  body  we  dug  up 
spectacle-like  yellow  glasses. 

It  was  clear  that  the  creature  had  been  over- 
whelmed in  a  sandstorm,  but  it  was  not  clear  why 
he  should  have  been  alone  and  apparently  wander- 
ing a  long  way  from  his  home  and  companions. 
The  incident  incited  us  to  greater  haste,  and  when 
we  had  replenished  our  water  skins,  we  resumed  the 
exhausting  tramp.  The  tree  line  became  increas- 
ingly plainer  to  view,  and  it  offered  a  goal  and  prize 
now  that  dissipated  our  fatigue  and  roused  our 
ambition.  We  had  not  discussed  the  Eskimo  waif 
but  I  guess  through  all  of  our  minds  slowly  or 
quickly  filtered  the  conviction  that  he  represented 
a  lower  slave  or  working  group ;  that  we  were  soon 
to  break  into  a  world  of  industry  and  achievement, 
founded  on  social  distinctions;  that  indeed  up  here 
in  Krocker  Land  flourished  perhaps  an  oldtime 
class  regime  with  knowledge  and  power  confined  to 
a  priestly  or  imperial  class,  like  Egypt,  like  Mexico, 
like  Peru. 

Some  of  my  first  trepidation  over  the  adventure 
had  vanished,  but  much  remained.  I  felt  no  con- 
fidence in  those  uncanny  air  travelers.  Goritz 
became  impatient  and  almost  retaliatory;  he  was 
maddened  by  the  vision  of  wealth,  for  he  dreamed 
we  were  coming  close  to  some  dazzling,  incalculable 
phenomenon  of  riches.  Hopkins  was  good- 
naturedly  suspicious  and  apprehensive,  but  con- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  215 

fessed  to  an  overpowering  desire  to  see  the  thing 
out,  and  "have  it  over."  The  Professor  lived  in 
the  seventh  heaven  of  delectation  over  the  prospect 
of  preparing  a  batch  of  papers,  to  be  read  before  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  in  Stockholm,  that 
would  place  his  name  high  on  the  walls  of  the 
Temple  of  Knowledge.  All  of  us  were  thus  anxious 
to  get  on,  and  we  made  rapid  progress.  Need 
there  was,  for  our  provisions  were  again  nearing 
exhaustion. 

It  was  almost  a  hundred  and  twenty  hours,  or 
five  days,  since  we  had  left  the  Deer  Pels  before  we 
dragged  ourselves  into  the  first  grateful  shadows  of 
the  great  Pine  Tree  Gredin.  So  Professor 
Bjornsen  termed  it.  Such  it  was.  A  vast,  plung- 
ing hillside  or  scarp,  covering  miles  and  miles,  and 
appareled  from  top  to  bottom  with  this  wonderful 
vesture  of  tall  pines.  And  it  sang  with  the  refresh- 
ing music  of  innumerable  brooks.  The  exhaustless 
reservoirs  of  water  emptied  upon  the  vast  desert 
zone  which,  almost  without  leaving  a  trace  of 
greenness  behind  them,  entered  that  profoundly 
weathered  and  comminuted  soil,  engulfed  com- 
pletely, as  are  the  rivers  of  California  or  Colorado 
or  Persia,  and  reissued  unsullied,  purified  and  cold, 
over  this  pine  tree  steppe. 

The  exhausted  pilgrim  through  Purgatory  who 
sees  the  gates  of  Paradise  open  to  him,  would,  for 
Christians,  furnish  a  description  of  our  feelings  as, 
ragged,  choked  with  dust,  almost  crazed  with 
thirst  and  speechless  from  fatigue,  we  threw  our- 
selves at  the  foot  of  the  first  towering  grove,  and 
sank  our  heads  into  its  moss  lined  bowls  of  living 
water.  As  a  Jew  I  myself  recalled  the  pretty  fable 
of  ''The  Slave  Who  Became  a  King"  and  all  that 
the  shipwrecked  wretch  had  felt  when  the  new 
people  he  had  reached  made  him  their  king  and  fed 
and  clothed  him ;  for  indeed  to  us,  as  Nefesh  was  to 


216  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Adam,  this  new  stage  was  the  Island  of  Life.  I 
had  reason  to  remember  the  story  more  Hterally 
afterwards. 

And  the  marvelous  stateliness  of  this  blue-green 
ocean  of  straight  trees,  the  entrancing  vistas  be- 
tween the  majestic  columns,  with  a  life  of  pheasant 
and  hare  and  squirrel,  the  bubbling  cadences  of 
springs,  and  the  rambling  mirthfulness  and  riot 
of  the  brooks,  the  deep-browed  silence  in  places, 
and  the  needle-thatched  ground,  inviting  us  to 
sleep  and  dreams,  had  a  fabulous  expression,  as  if 
the  prelude  to  some  unearthly — See  how  the  whole 
unreality  of  it  haunts  me — experience.  But, 
besides  its  picturesqueness,  we  rejoiced  in  the  dusk- 
like protection  from  the  light;  in  the  effect  and 
feeling  of  a  dark  submarine  immersion,  the  light 
became  so  beryl-like,  that  we  again,  and  now  as  it 
were  en  masse,  encountered  fresh  reminders  of  the 
still  invisible  people  we  must  soon  see  face  to  face. 

There  were  clearings  which  had  been  made  in  the 
forest.  They  were  dotted  with  stumps  and  crossed 
by  fallen  trunks,  and  made  outlooks  from  which  we 
saw  the  interminable  distances  of  serried  ranks  of 
trees.  Far  to  the  right,  far  to  the  left,  far  before  us 
with  as  yet  no  determinable  limit  in  any  direction, 
the  gigantic  flood  of  pines  flowed  ceaselessly  down 
the  sides  of  a  continental  amphitheater. 

These  cleared  rings  were  suggestive  enough. 
There  was  no  evidence  that  less  toilsome  methods 
had  been  used  than  those  adopted  by  prehistoric 
man.  The  trees  had  been  hacked  and  cut  by  stone 
axes,  they  had  been  trimmed  by  stone  axes,  and  we 
found  traces  of  fire  around  them,  which  had  been 
made  to  hasten  their  fall.  But  it  was  not  long 
before  we  came  upon  well-made  roads  threading  the 
forest,  to  which  the  clearings  themselves  were 
tributary,  and  over  which  the  great  logs  had  been 
transported. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  217 

Besides  we  found  dishes  and  cups,  vessels  of 
various  sizes,  which  were  well  advanced  in  fictile 
skill,  being  watertight,  with  glazed  bodies  of  white 
and  yellow  or  terracotta  tints.  And  over  them,  as 
on  the  buckles,  were  rudely  painted  and  reburned 
that  now  familiar  symbol  of  the  tree  and  serpent. 
These  interested  us  greatly,  but  our  sharpest  hunt 
for  some  gold  relics  was  unrewarded. 

"No  lost  property  worth  advertising  for  'round 
here,"  said  Hopkins. 

"Well  it's  still  westward,"  said  Goritz.  "We 
must  run  them  down  soon.  But  see  how  endless 
the  prospect,"  and  he  pointed  to  that  unique  multi- 
tude of  motionless  trees,  falling  away  and  ever 
downwards  into  some  gigantic  central  subsidence. 

It  was  remarkable  that  we  encountered  no  tem- 
porary abodes,  no  camps,  no  settlements  and  no 
laggard  or  outpost  of  the  elusive  people. 

The  Professor,  invincible  in  theorizing  and  per- 
tinacious in  assertion,  animadverted  on  our  dis- 
coveries in  this  way: 

"Well,  these  Radiumites  show  a  sort  of  frustrated 
culture.  They  have  some  specialized  knowledge, 
and  then  again  they  are  in  other  respects  primitive. 
It's  a  very  interesting  ethnological  problem.  It's 
a  well  known  circumstance  that  civilizations  decline 
or  even  degenerate.  The  modern  Indian  of 
Mexico  or  Peru  offers  a  sad  contrast  to  his 
ancestors,  but  in  the  useful  arts,  as  Tylor  remarks,  a 
skill  once  acquired  is  seldom  or  never  abandoned  or 
forgotten.  If  these  people  could  smelt  iron  they 
certainly  would  not  resort  to  stone  for  felling  trees. 
Races  like  the  New  Zealanders  have  never  learned 
to  reduce  iron  from  its  ore,  though  iron  ore  abounds 
in  their  country." 

The  trails  and  roads  proved  to  be  labyrinthine, 
and  led  us  over  long  and  useless  journeys,  fre- 
quently back  to  our  starting  point.     It  was  Goritz 


218  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

who  solved  their  apparent  confusion  and  proved 
that  they  were  parts  of  intersecting  loops  or  circles, 
and  that  each  series  of  circles  connected  with  a 
succeeding  one  by  roads  leading  always  from  the 
westernmost  (or  lowest)  edge  of  each  circle.  These 
latter  roads  seemed  radial  and  continuous.  The 
plan  was  like  this  (Erickson  showed  me  a  drawing) 
with  the  circles  a  mile  or  half  a  mile  in  diameter. 

But  it  was  the  Professor  who  detected  a  remark- 
able feature  which  plunged  us  all  into  renewed 
speculations  and  wondering  surmises.  In  follow- 
ing one  of  these  circular  roads  he  observed  that  the 
area  enclosed  by  it  was  a  depression,  and  this  fact, 
together  with  a  less  crowded  growth  and  some 
previous  clearing  permitted  him  to  note  that  an  un- 
usually large  tree  towered  among  the  others,  appar- 
ently exceeding  them  greatly  in  height  and,  rudely 
at  least,  it  was  at  the  center  of  the  circular  space. 

As,  at  times  yielding  to  a  lotos-like  influence,  we 
now  moved  more  deliberately,  and  would  remain 
at  one  camping  spot  (this  was  before  Goritz  pointed 
out  the  more  direct  line  of  advance  over  the  radiat- 
ing roads)  twenty  or  more  hours,  the  Professor 
would  direct  his  steps  to  this  tree  as  a  landmark. 
Some  abstruse  stirrings  of  suggestion  urged  him. 
But  it  seemed  almost  a  miracle  of  second  sight,  for 
it  uncovered  an  astounding  system  of  combined 
surveying  or  charting,  associated  intricately  with 
religious  motives.  He  diverted  our  attention 
indeed  to  a  search  which  enriched  us  with  some 
valuable  objects,  though  we  were  likely  to  have 
lost  them  all  later.  But  it  thus  led  to  the  denoue- 
ment of  an  utterly  unparalleled  adventure  by 
forcing  us  sharply  upon  the  mysterious  people  who 
lived  here,  and  opening  up  a  chapter  of  incidents 
and  episodes  never  otherwise  related,  except  in 
tales  of  invention  or  in  the  dreams  of  disturbed 
and  romancing  minds. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  219 

He  found  his  tree  in  a  small,  open,  carefully 
cleared  space,  and  on  it  were  not  only  carvings  of 
the  ubiquitous  serpent  sign,  but  with  this  evidently 
scripts,  which  he  interpreted  as  prayers,  or  sacred 
utterances  and  adjurations, and,  more  astonishingly, 
conventionalized  GOLD  images  (hardly  exceeding 
three  or  four  inches  in  height)  laid  at  the  bottom  of 
the  tree.  These  images  rudely  symbolized  a 
human  figure  enrolled  in  the  coils  of  a  serpent. 

When  he  brought  one  of  these  images  into  our 
camp — he  timidly  refrained  from  disturbing  the 
others — you  may  imagine  our  excitement.  Goritz 
gazed  and  gazed  at  it  in  a  trance  of  amazement 
and  gloating.  He  wanted  to  set  out  on  an  excur- 
sion of  discovery  at  once.  But  we  overruled  that. 
The  Professor  had  our  attention  completely.  His 
exploit  gave  a  real  authority  to  his  entertaining 
disquisition.     We  were  thoroughly  interested. 

"Yes,  here  is  a  stupendous  theme — Serpent  and 
Tree  worship — developed  on  an  unusual  scale  and  in 
an  unprecedented  manner.  You  see  this  enormous 
forest  is  arranged  in  a  chart-like  manner  into  a 
series — I  might  say  a  Halysites,  as  it  were — of 
encircling  roadways,  producing  the  effect  of  a 
garland  of  wreathed  snakes,  while  in  each  fold  or 
embrace,  some  tree,  conspicuous  for  size  or  height, 
or  some  physical  perfection,  has  been  selected, 
about  or  around  which  again  the  serpentine  coils 
are  enwrapped,  a  splendid  combination  of  tree  and 
serpent  worship  ideographically  presented  in  a 
park  plan.  Again  the  votive  objects  attached  to 
the  trees  form  a  group  of  subordinated  ornamental 
commemorative  or  religious  symbols,  and  the 
whole  display  is  ancestral,  archaic,  turanian,  for 
Fergusson  holds  that  no  Aryan  people  succumbed 
to  this  peculiar  cult,  dimly  shadowed  forth  in  myth, 
fable  and  history  at  the  first  emergence  of  racial 
life. 


220  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"Think  of  the  legendary  lore  connected  with  the 
strange  prepossessions  of  early  peoples,  the  myth 
of  Adam  and  Eve  and  the  Serpent;  the  brazen 
serpent  lifted  up  in  the  wilderness  by  Moses,  the 
Serpent  of  Epidaurus  in  the  temple  of  Aesculapius, 
the  dragon  of  the  Argonauts,  the  serpent  of  the 
oracle  at  Delphi,  in  the  grove  of  laurel  trees;  the 
serpent  inhabiting  a  cave  at  Lanuvium,  and 
wrought  into  religious  practices;  the  ascription  to 
serpents  of  healing  powers  and  powers  of  divina- 
tion; the  snake  in  Indian,  Egyptian,  Phoenician, 
Assyrian  religions.  Think,  Goritz  and  Erickson, 
of  the  tree  worship  of  the  Scandinavians,  culminat- 
ing in  the  Yggdrasill,  the  ash,  whose  branches 
spread  over  the  whole  world,  and  even  reach  up  to 
heaven,  the  extended  and  dreadful  homage  paid  to 
great  snakes  in  America,  still  existing  among  the 
desert  Indians  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico! 

"But  as  a  contribution  to  the  ophitic  lore  I 
believe  we  have  found  in  this  new  polar  continent 
the  central  arcana  of  the  mystery  referable,  for 
aught  we  know,  to  the  Adam  legend.  Gentlemen, 
we  are  stepping  on  the  skirts  of  a  great  mystery." 

The  solemnity  of  this  conclusion  which  was 
becomingly  indicated  by  the  Professor's  out- 
stretched hands  and  by  the  smile  of  benignant 
invitation  for  us  to  assume  his  own  gravity,  was 
somewhat  abridged  or  spoiled  by  Hopkins'  inter- 
jection. 

"I'm  afraid.  Professor,  that  we'll  be  stepping  into 
trouble  if  we  pinch  too  many  of  these  joints.  I 
say  leave  the  contraptions  alone."  This  was 
meant  as  a  rebuke  to  Goritz  who  was  for  rifling 
everything.  I  half  believe  he  would  now  have 
been  willing  to  abandon  our  further  march,  hunt 
for  the  wood  temples,  despoil  them,  and  retreat, 
recover  our  yacht  and  hike  it  over  the  ice  for  Point 
Barrow.     The  gold  had  strangely  turned  his  head. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  221 

"Yes,"  I  interrupted,  for  I  was  really  anxious  too, 
though  I  was  willing  to  join  the  laugh  that  followed 
Hopkins'  remonstrance,  "we  must  be  careful. 
There's  mystery  enough  here  and  there  may  be 
power  behind  the  mystery,  enough  also  to  send  us 
each  about  our  business  to  Eternity." 

However,  from  this  time  we  watched  for  the 
trees  that  accentuated  the  great  rings  of  woods, 
marked  off  by  the  circular  and  intersecting  roads. 
We  detected  numbers  of  them,  though  for  days 
none  would  be  found.  Cleared  spaces  surrounded 
them,  but  not  always,  nor  indeed  generally,  were 
there  votive  offerings  of  gold  images,  but  bits  of 
apparel,  pottery,  glass  beads  (we  wondered  much 
over  these  last),  leaden,  rudely  shaped  figures, 
stone  implements  and  carved  wooden  masks.  We 
wasted  time  in  this  pursuit,  urged  to  it  by  Goritz's 
insatiable  delight  over  the  gold  finds  (we  resisted 
his  intentions  of  taking  everything  away,  though  he 
despoiled  many  of  the  trees),  and  I  think  the  Pro- 
fessor was  responsible  for  much  of  our  wandering, 
for  in  his  note  taking  he  was  indefatigable. 

The  ground  continued  to  descend,  and  though 
the  decline  was  interrupted  by  hillocks,  protuber- 
ant mounds  and  long,  rising  slopes,  these  exceptions 
were  accidental,  and  we  realized  that  since  entering 
the  forest  we  had  descended  nearly  three  thousand 
feet.  We  were  actually  over  five  thousand  feet 
below  the  mean  level  of  the  earth.  From  some  of 
the  elevations  our  view  still  measured  the  endless 
stretch  of  sombre  green  (really  a  blue-green), 
though  we  felt  certain  that  a  still  lower  valley 
bounded  its  marge  and  that  beyond  the  latter 
limit  there  were  hot  springs  or  geysers,  the  gushing 
upward  of  steam  clouds  was  so  incessant.  And 
then  more  wondrously,  we  were  made  aware  of  a 
shaft  of  light,  a  luminous  prism  shooting  upward 
from  the  earth,  which  we  began  to  suspect  was 


222  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

related  to  the  stationary  sun  from  which  this 
puzzHng  and  utterly  unrelated  nook  of  the  earth 
received  light  and  heat,  when  outside  of  its  charmed 
and  storm-beleaguered  rim  the  polar  seas  and  lands 
lay  bound  in  the  iron  grip  of  winter  and  were  dark 
beneath  a  sunless  sky.  Bewildering,  maddening 
paradox!  We  were  often  thunderstruck  and 
speechless,  dimly  doubting  whether  we  had  not 
indeed  "shuffled  off  the  coil"  of  life,  and  had 
become  reincarnate  in  another  sphere. 

I  guess  that  I  alone  had  that  feeling  often,  for 
Hopkins'  imperturbable  realism,  Goritz's  avarice 
and  the  Professor's  splendid  vaulting  ambition  to 
convulse  the  scientific  world  kept  them  mortally 
conscious  and  human. 

And  now  an  amazing  thing  happened.  It 
began  the  rush  of  events  that  for  three  or  four 
months  tossed  us  along  a  course  of  excitement  that 
made  our  heads  spin  and  terminated  in  episodes  for 
all  of  us  too  fabulous  to  be  believed  and  yet — Mr. 
Link  they  are  the  sober,  unvarnished  truth.  You 
may  doubt  your  ears,  you  may  be  tempted — you 
will  be — to  put  me  in  a  class  outside  even  of  the 
biggest  assassins  of  truth — and  as  a  journalist  you 
have  known  a  good  many,  but  in  the  end  perhaps  I 
can  re-establish  my  reputation  by  an  appeal  to  your 
eyes!     That  sort  of  evidence  cannot  be  gainsaid. 

Well,  it  turned  out  that  we  had  nearly  crossed 
the  interminable  forest,  and  were  tramping  silently 
along  one  of  the  radial  roads,  just  after  it  had  cut 
("bisected"  the  Professor  insisted)  the  arc  of  one  of 
the  great  circles,  when  Goritz  quickly  raised  his  hand : 

"Listen!     Music — drums!" 

We  halted,  breathless  with  wonder.  Softly,  in  a 
low,  monotonous  hum  came  the  itinerant  beating. 
Yes,  we  all  heard  it,  and  with  it,  as  we  waited,  was 
mingled  the  metallic  clangor  of  cymbals  or  some- 
thing like  them. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  223 

"  'Regardless  of  grammar  they  all  said  "That's 
them,"'"  whispered  Hopkins,  quoting  his  Ingolds- 
by. 

''Up  the  tree.  They're  coming  nearer,"  said 
Goritz. 

"Decidedly,"  coincided  the  Professor.  "As  an 
exhibition  of  the  prehistoric  musical  art  this  will  be 
unique." 

We  were  not  long  in  clambering  among  the  out- 
spread boughs  of  a  big  pine,  leaving  our  instruments 
and  packs  at  its  foot  (the  species  in  growth  and 
cyclical  arrangement  of  its  limbs  resembled  the 
white  pine),  helping  each  other  until  we  were  finally 
asylumed  among  the  topmost  needles,  peering  out 
over  the  receding  road  for  the  approaching  proces- 
sion, if  procession  it  was. 

We  were  not  to  wait  long.  The  music,  disen- 
tangled now  from  the  interference  and  dampening 
effect  of  the  trees,  rose  assailingly  from  the  distance, 
and  the  thumping  drums  and  the  dulcet  swish  and 
clatter  of  the  cymbals  seemed  almost  beneath  us. 
We  were  straining  our  eyes,  and,  in  our  impatience 
and  curiosity,  became  careless  of  our  position,  all 
half  standing  on  the  same  bough,  clasping  the  trunk 
and  leaning  outward. 

There  was  a  glittering,  swarming  effect  in  the 
vista,  and  we  saw  the  advancing  ranks  of  the 
strangers.  Instantly  we  recognized  the  Eskimo,  or 
his  modified  image,  in  the  first  companies.  They 
were  lurching  ponderously  forward,  their  legs  and 
shoulders  advancing  together  to  the  irresistible 
rhythm  swelling  behind  them.  They  wore  short 
yellow  tunics  or  sacks  engirdled  by  cloth  belts  with 
leaden  buckles;  blue  trousers  caught  at  the  ankles 
by  leaden  anklets  and  sandals  completed  their 
dress,  except  that  on  their  heads  they  wore  broad, 
white,  hive-shaped  straw  sombreros  not  unlike  the 
head  covering  of  the  peons  in  Mexico.     Each  man 


224  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

swung  a  short  bludgeon  comically  suggestive  of  a 
New  York  City  policeman's  club. 

"Cheese  it — the  Cop,"  chuckled  Hopkins. 

The  ranks  came  on  in  goodly  number  and  they 
formed  a  stalwart,  if  clumsy  and  shufifling  phalanx. 
The  band,  as  a  proper  misappropriation  of  the  word 
would  describe  it,  succeeded.  These,  too,  were  all 
of  the  Eskimo  type,  but  men  and  women  mingled 
together;  the  men  plied  the  small,  stiff,  vociferous 
wooden  drums  and  the  women  rather  gracefully, 
and  with  inerrant  precision,  smashed  the  cymbals 
together. 

"Gold — by  God,"  croaked  Goritz,  and  he  almost 
lost  his  balance  in  his  admiration. 

Gold  they  were  indeed,  and  the  metal  delivered 
a  note  less  rasping  and  shattering  than  the  ordinary 
brass.  The  men  and  women  of  the  band  were 
dressed  in  closer  fitting  garments,  their  legs  were 
naked,  but  over  each  of  the  women's  knees  was 
strapped  a  glittering  gold  cap  and  their  hair  was 
braided  with  sinuous  gold  serpents.  They  bur- 
nished the  dark  outline  of  the  marchers  like  gleams 
of  light  or  fireflies  in  a  summer  gloaming.  It 
was  really  very  pretty,  and  Hopkins  nearly  lost 
his  self  control  by  starting  our  applause.  The 
impulse  was  momentary,  for  in  a  trice  our  eyes  were 
ensnared  in  the  sight  of  the  astonishing  crowd  of 
little  people  that  followed  them. 

They  were  perhaps  larger  than  the  strange  little 
men  we  had  met  on  the  Deer  Pels,  and  their  heads 
did  not  fall  forward  with  that  irksome  sense  of 
heaviness  which  afflicted  those  diminutive  philoso- 
phers. But  they  formed  a  diverting  and  animated 
picture.  They  were  in  all  sorts  of  order,  and  rather 
prevalently  without  any  order  at  all.  In  threes  and 
fours,  in  strings  and  lines,  in  gravely  marching  little 
bands,  and  then  in  dancing  disorder,  all  wearing 
tunics  and  trousers  of  various  colors  or  plaids,  but 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  225 

with  the  belt  and  the  hieroglyphic  buckle.  Every 
now  and  then  as  they  surged  along  they  sang,  a 
midget  song,  quavering  and  odd,  musical  in  a  way, 
but  a  rather  poor  way,  and,  like  the  shrilling 
cymbals  and  the  tom-tom  drums,  sing-songy  and 
monotonous.  We  became  spell-bound  at  the  weird 
spectacle.  They  also  wore  broad  brimmed  straw 
hats,  but  pushed  back  on  their  heads,  as  if  to  offset 
that  ludicrous  tilt  of  their  funny  big  heads. 

And  then  came  a  host  of  the  Eskimo  girls  beating 
the  cymbals  again,  but  there  were  no  drums  or  men. 

"Well,  I  must  say,"  softly  spoke  Hopkins,  "the 
popular  chorus  girl  hasn't  anything  on  these  peach- 
erinas,  has  she?" 

But  what  was  this  amazing  company  that  fol- 
lowed— bizarre,  fascinating,  crudely  savage,  and  yet 
enigmatically  enthralling?  A  chariot  or  a  flat  plat- 
form car  on  low,  solid  wooden  wheels,  drawn  by 
goats  whose  horns  were  tipped  with  gold  snails, 
bore  a  group  of  diminutive  figures  which  we  all 
recognized  as  being  the  very  little  men  whose 
aeronautics  had  so  astonished  us.  They  and  more 
like  them  sat  back  to  back  on  this  equipage  of  gold, 
as  in  an  Irish  jaunting  car,  and  one  chariot  suc- 
ceeded another,  all  loaded  down  with  the  Areo- 
pagus of  councilors  and  governors,  for  such  they 
certainly  seemed  to  be.  But  they  were  sump- 
tuously dressed  in  violet  cassocks,  girt  with  gold; 
gold  chains  encircled  their  necks,  and  pendent  to 
these  was  the  serpent  symbol.  On  their  heads  they 
wore  the  fiat  broad  brimmed  hat  bedizened  with 
gold  trappings.  These  hats  now  lay  in  their  laps, 
their  long-fingered,  waxy  hands  folded  over  them, 
and  their  eyes  were  protected  by  the  absurd  goggles. 

They  too  were  singing  or  praying,  the  chant 
rising  to  us  with  the  undulatory  emphasis  of  a 
Hebrew  cantor,  and — so  it  seemed  to  me — the  words 
were  indeed  a  Hebrew  jargon.     But  around  them. 


226  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

before  them,  behind  them,  stalked  an  ordered  regi- 
ment of  the  slimmer,  taller  Eskimos;  all  men,  and 
they  each  raised  on  their  left  shoulders,  held  sta- 
tionary by  the  bent  left  arm  and  the  right  arm 
extended  across  the  breast,  a  pole  of  gold,  on  which 
was  entrained  a  living  snake.  The  creatures  were 
imprisoned,  for  their  necks  were  caught  in  locks  at 
the  apexes  of  the  poles.  These  snakes  were  black, 
a  glossy  black,  and  on  the  glossy,  glittering  poles 
they  formed  a  strange  caduceus.  It  was  in  a  way 
a  horrible  assemblage,  and  then  again,  against  the 
background  of  all  of  our  incredible  experiences,  it 
assumed  a  bewildering  charm,  as  if  it  were  a  dream 
half  turned  into  a  nightmare,  or  a  nightmare 
checked  in  its  course  by  a  remembered  dream.  On, 
on,  they  swayed  and  moved,  and  amid  these 
ophidian  pages,  groups  of  drummers  kept  up  a 
ceaseless  dull,  stupid  drubbing. 

Then  something  stranger  followed.  An  empty 
chair  on  a  gold  wagon,  a  chair  itself  of  gold,  but 
shaped  like  the  stump  of  a  tree  with  two  branches 
sprouting  from  it,  and  between  these  as  they  were 
projected  above  the  stump,  the  spread  figure — in 
heraldry  displayed — of  the  Crocodilo-Python,  also 
in  gold.  The  hideous  animal  enormity  was  all 
there,  its  anaconda-like  tail  winding  about  the  tree 
stump,  its  stilted  hind  feet  grasping  the  lower  ends 
of  the  branches,  its  shorter  webbed  forefeet  drag- 
ging their  curved  ends  towards  its  twisted  neck,  and 
the  saurian  jaws  in  a  horrid  rictus,  imminent  above 
that  empty  throne  whose  occupant  perchance 
might  be  some  aboriginal  Apollo  or  a  grinning  and 
revolting  savage  sibyl. 

Well,  Mr.  Link,  the  spectacle,  with  this  climax, 
made  us  dizzy;  some  reminiscent  weakness  from 
my  swooning  attacked  me,  but  I  would  have  been 
safe  enough.  I  stuck  fast  to  the  trunk  of  the  tree, 
when    Goritz    turning   backward    stepped    on    my 


MFETIXG  THE   RADIUMOPOLITES 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  227 

support.  It  cracked,  it  broke.  Hopkins  seized 
Goritz's  arm,  the  Professor  Hopkins'  coat  tail — 
what  there  was  of  it — and  ingloriously,  with  crash 
and  whisking  flight  from  branch  to  branch,  we  four 
hopeless  Argonauts  slumped  from  the  top  of  the 
lofty  pine,  with  arresting  scramblings  and  maniacal 
clutchings,  to  the  bottom,  and  were  spilled  to  the 
roadway;  four  voiceless,  bedraggled,  ragged,  bushy- 
haired,  wild  eyed,  grimy  men,  more  savage  in  our 
destitution  than  the  savages  we  had  fallen  amongst. 
As  we  banged  to  the  ground,  a  jolt  stopped  the 
empty  throne,  with  its  golden  splendors  of  the 
distended  image  of  the  saurian,  directly  opposite 
our  jumbled,  prostrate  bodies. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Valley  of  Rasselas 

It  was  an  incongruous  position,  and  a  mind  re- 
sponsive only  to  the  ludicrous  would  have  been 
delighted  with  mirth  over  it.  But  it  was  really  no 
joke,  and  if  Hopkins,  whose  risibilities  were  the 
least  easily  subdued,  had  ventured  upon  one  of  his 
whirlwinds  of  laughter,  instead  of  sedately  rising 
(enjoining  us  to  imitate  him)  and  bowing  pro- 
foundly, it  might  have  had  a  tragic  termination. 

As  it  was,  Hopkins  himself  actually  prescribed 
our  solemn  behavior.  It  somehow  appealed  just 
then  to  his  freakish  sense  of  humor  to  appear  por- 
tentously grave  and  decorous,  and  as  he  kept  up  his 
salaaming  we  fell  in  with  the  trick,  and  were 
bobbing  away  with  the  gravity  of  mandarins. 

The  crowd,  as  we  slammed  into  the  road,  were 
pretty  well  upset.  There  was  a  queer  gurgling 
groan,  and  then  a  shout,  and  a  few  of  the  men 
rushed  forward  with  leveled  poles,  from  which  the 
black  squirming  ribbons  uncannily  unrolled,  as  if 
to  strike  us.  Our  appealing  gestures  for  forbear- 
ance disarmed  them,  and  then  curiously  some  of 
them  began  to  smile.  Hopkins'  later  reflection 
that  we  would  probably  have  "made  a  meal  sack 
split  open  with  diversion,"  was  about  correct,  and 
it  must  have  been  the  preposterous  absurdity  of  it 
all,  conjoined  with  our  indefatigable  rolling  up  and 
down,  and  some  improvised  gesture  of  the  Yankee, 

228 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  229 

expressive  of  submission  and  subjection,  that 
gradually  increased  their  merriment,  until  we  had 
in  front  of  us  a  friendly  audience,  simmering  with 
amusement. 

The  commotion  and  noise  of  the  bending,  break- 
ing branches  had  been  seen  and  heard  much  further 
along  the  cortege,  and  it  had  caught  the  eye  of  the 
dignitaries  on  the  wheeled  platform.  In  a  few 
minutes  a  number  of  these  ambling,  beetle-like 
worthies  arrived  and,  withdrawing  cautiously  into 
the  protecting  circle  of  the  Eskimo  youth,  gazed  at 
us  with  unaffected  astonishment.  We  now  had  the 
best  opportunity  to  see  them  at  short  range,  and 
this  was  so  desirable  that  we  brought  our  antics  to 
a  close,  reciprocating  their  scrutiny  with  as  keen  an 
inspection  on  our  part.  The  impression  made  on 
me,  on  all  of  us,  was  favorable. 

The  faces  of  these  short  men  were  remarkable  for 
an  unmistakable  gravity;  their  eyes,  from  which 
they  had  removed  the  goggles,  were  penetrating 
and  bright,  sunken  beneath  arched  and  conspicuous 
eyebrows,  and  set  alongside  of  prominent  aquiline 
noses.  The  lower  parts  of  their  faces  were  weak, 
narrowed,  and  clothed  with  a  scanty  pointed  beard. 
Their  brows  were  broad,  high  and  of  alabaster 
whiteness.  This  colorlessness  pervaded  their  whole 
anatomy,  related  at  it  were,  to  the  thinness  of  their 
legs,  their  slim  long  arms  and  pendulous  fingers, 
their  flat  and  insufficient  feet.  We  noticed  then 
that  they  carried  in  their  belts  tubes  of  metal 
similar  or  identical  to  the  wand-like  ones  that  had 
seemed  to  aid  their  flight  with  the  balloons. 

Their  study  of  us  was  emphasized  by  consider- 
able stroking  of  the  beards,  shrugging  of  the  shoul- 
ders, and  an  occasional  despairing  waving  of  the 
hands.  Everyone,  everything,  remained  motion- 
less while  these  wiseacres  made  up  their  minds  as  to 
the  meaning  of  our  intrusion,  or  endeavored  to 


230  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

meet  the  broader  problem  of  what  do  to  with  us. 
And  so  the  whole  mass  slowly  gathered,  the  first 
ranks  of  the  muscular  Eskimo  older  men,  the 
drummers  and  the  cymbalists,  the  fluttering, 
diversified  groups  of  the  little  people;  they  crushed 
into  the  woods,  blocked  the  road,  climbed  up  into 
the  trees;  many  pressed  near  to  us,  their  hands 
resting  on  their  hips,  regarding  us  with  a  tense  and 
silent  absorption  that  made  me  nervous. 

Hopkins  nudged  the  Professor.  "Prof.,  give 
'em  a  lecture,  anything,  only  hand  it  over  highly 
flavored — paprika-like.  Slam  a  few  dictionaries 
at  'em.  What  we  need  just  now  is  a  little  intellec- 
tual standing,  I  take  it.  These  highbrows  think 
we're  no  better  than  we  look." 

Oddly  they  had  said  nothing  to  us  until  they 
noticed  Hopkins  talking;  then  one  of  them,  a 
rather  benignant  and  especially  reflective  looking 
individual,  who  had  been  arguing  vehemently  the 
moment  before  with  one  of  his  colleagues,  advanced 
and  said  what  sounded  like  ''do  bau"  or,  had  it 
been  in  such  Hebrew  as  I  myself  understood, 
''dobare";  namely  "speak,"  "talk." 

The  Professor  probably  did  not  understand  the 
word,  but  he  understood  perfectly  their  wishes,  and 
under  Hopkins'  admonition  stepped  forward,  and 
started  a  harangue.  Nothing  that  had  preceded 
was  so  likely  to  ruin  our  discretion  as  the  scene  made 
by  this  overture  of  the  Professor's.  Hopkins  was 
compelled  to  grovel  on  the  ground  to  suppress  his 
merriment,  but  this  ruse  was  interpreted  for- 
tunately as  an  expression  of  reverence  for  the 
words  or  voice  of  our  leader,  and  his  explosions 
reduced  by  this  means  to  a  subterranean  titter 
were  further  alleviatingly  considered  as  a  phase  of 
weeping. 

The  Professor  was  a  sight.  Not  any  part  of  his 
attire  was  whole,  and  his  boots  were  devoid  of  toes 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  231 

and  rent  along  the  soles.  He  was  dirtier,  I  think, 
than  any  one  of  us,  as  his  ablutions  had  been  less 
regular,  so  far  as  regularity  was  the  appropriation 
of  an  opportunity  once  a  month,  and  he  had  been 
torn  and  bruised  and  scratched,  and  had  a  most 
despondent  expression  of  hoodlumism.  His  hands 
alone  were  presentable ;  I  have  referred  to  his  sen- 
sitiveness over  his  hands.  And  his  hair!  It  was  a 
bright  red,  and  it  had  grown  profusely,  and,  exult- 
ing in  some  untamed  inclination  to  revert  to  sav- 
agery, had  grown  outward  in  a  stiff  jungle  that  now 
flamed  around  his  ingratiating  physiognomy  like 
some  angry  halo.  Under  the  stress  of  his  nervous- 
ness and — his  periods,  he  flourished  his  hands  and 
shook  his  head,  and  this  immensely  increased  the 
gap  between  his  grandiloquence  and  his  humiliating 
appearance.     It  was  side  splitting. 

And  then  increasing  the  ludicrousness  of  it  all 
almost  insufferably,  was  the  close  attention  of  the 
people,  and  the  absurdly  critical  demeanor  and 
deliberation  of  the  philosophers.  Certainly  no- 
body understood  a  word  of  what  the  Professor  said 
and  yet  they  listened  with  bent  heads,  devouring 
eyes,  and  a  mute  satisfaction  impossible  to  describe. 
And  the  Professor,  flattered  or  deceived  by  the  thril- 
ling effect  he  was  producing,  fired  off  his  lingo  at  a 
greater  speed,  with  a  screaming  voice  (he  probably 
thought  that  if  he  yelled  he  would  be  better  under- 
stood), and  more  tumultuous  gestures.  The  combi- 
nation was  more  unutterably  funny  than  our 
predicament  was  possibly  grave.  Hopkins  was 
unable  to  raise  his  head.  I  heard  him  groaning, 
"Such  a  bizness.  Choke  him  off."  I  was  com- 
pelled to  hide  my  head  in  my  hands  and  allow  my 
convulsions  to  go  for  what  they  were  worth  as 
emotional  signals  of  despair.  Goritz,  a  grave  man, 
lately  a  fiercely  obsessed  man,  deliberately  turned 
his  back  and  stuck  his  fingers  in  his  ears. 


232  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

And  this  was  some  of  the  Professor's  sonorous 
patter: 

"My  friends  you  are  amazed  to  see  us,  but  we 
have  come  from  the  great  (hands  pressed  together) 
world  beyond  your  continent  to  find  YOU  (empha- 
sized by  two  pointing  index  fingers).  We  knew  you 
were  here  (an  ascending  shout),  and  we  knew  you 
lived  in  a  world  of  wonders  (miscellaneous  flourishes 
of  both  hands  over  his  head),  and  enchantments, 
scientific  miracles  (a  prolonged  crescendo)  of 
which  we  wish  to  know  more.  Do  not  feel 
astonished  at  our  appearance  (an  inclusive  sweep 
of  the  right  arm) ;  we  have  traveled  over  the  polar 
sea,  over  mountain  ranges,  through  a  desert;  we 
have  crossed  the  steaming  chasm  that  encircles 
your  country  (hands  and  arms  in  descriptive  atti- 
tudes, and  constantly  moving).  We  have  essayed 
the  impossible  (another  shout),  and  we  have  ac- 
complished it  (sudden  drop  into  a  growling  bass) ; 
we  have,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  for  at  least  ten  minutes, 
with  the  people  positively  hypnotized,  so  it  seemed, 
by  his  clamorous  chatter. 

The  absurdity  of  this  address  was  to  us  evident 
enough,  and  yet  it  was  just  the  kind  of  demonstra- 
tion on  our  part  which  impressed  them.  The  Pro- 
fessor's style  was  valorous  and  friendly  and  noisy, 
and  the  efTect  of  his  rattling  appeal  was  propitious. 
There  would  have  been  real  danger  for  us,  I  believe 
now,  had  they  discovered  how  we  had  rifled  the 
tree  temples.  That  might  have  roused  their  worst 
hatred  and  made  our  position  perilous. 

Suddenly  the  benignant  looking  leader  clapped 
his  hands  together,  and  then  put  one  over  his 
mouth,  and  the  Professor  wisely  took  the  hint  and 
subsided.  There  was  an  animated  colloquy  begun 
among  the  other  chiefs  and  legislators,  and  we  all 
listened  intently,  I  especially,  for  it  became  a 
stronger  and  stronger  conviction  that  these  digni- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  233 

taries  spoke  a  strain  of  Hebrew,  to  me  not  at  all 
understandable,  and  yet  approaching  my  own 
Hebrew  vocabulary,  but  masked  or  distorted  by 
their  peculiar  nasality  and  squeakiness. 

The  discussion  grew  vehement,  and  the  little 
doctors  attained  a  degree  of  excitement  that  threw 
them  into  violent  gesticulations,  their  heads  danc- 
ing with  their  vigorous  utterances,  their  beards 
wagging,  and  their  arms  and  hands  flung  around  in 
elucidations  that  seemed  never  to  convince  anyone. 
Well,  the  upshot  of  it  all  was  that  an  order  was 
given  to  take  us  in  custody,  which  we  were  made  to 
comprehend  by  very  expressive  signs,  and  the  order 
was  accompanied  by  a  lot  of  gracious  grimace, 
deprecatory  bowing  and  apologetic  shrugs,  whose 
burden  of  significance  we  understood  to  be  that  an 
escort  would  take  us  to  the  conveniences  we  needed 
— a  bath,  renewed  clothing,  food,  rest,  shelter,  etc. — 
while  the  procession  would  pursue  its  ceremonial 
transit,  which  we  very  well  saw  was  a  state  occasion 
connected  with  their  religion  and  involving  perhaps 
a  long  journey  consuming  weeks  for  its  completion. 
I  wondered  whether  they  would  discover  our 
thievery,  and  felt  convinced  that  if  they  did  our 
sojourn  amongst  them  would  be  less  pleasant. 

After  some  confusion  and  distracting  running  to 
and  fro,  all  of  which  had  quite  a  civilized  aspect 
from  the  self-importance  of  the  little  actors,  and  the 
typical  uncertainty  and  contradiction  of  orders, 
we  were  finally  dispatched  with  an  escort  or  guard 
of  Eskimo  men,  led  by  a  chief  or  captain  who  had 
received  from  the  council  a  budget  of  directions 
and  injunctions,  and  who,  as  Hopkins  put  it,  "had 
rather  soured  on  the  job''  which  would  deprive 
him  of  the  emotional  reflexes  of  the  religious  revival 
— surely  a  sort  of  vast  national  picnic. 

By  this  time  the  spaces  around  us  were  jammed 
tight  with  people,   the  little  folk  and  the  bulky 


234  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Eskimos  crowding  together  and  picturesquely 
intermingled;  multitudes  were  leaping  into  the 
trees  and  climbing  out  on  the  branches,  so  that  we 
were  literally  in  a  defile  of  the  strangers,  whose 
drums  and  cymbals  were  now  silent,  and  who, 
passive  and  almost  motionless,  gazed  at  us  with 
a  fixed  wonder  that  robbed  their  faces  of  all 
expression. 

An  incident  reminded  us  forcefully  of  the  strange 
power  of  the  little  rulers  over  their  bulky  depen- 
dents or  subjects,  and  revived  our  astonishment  at 
the  contents  of  the  metal  tubes  they  carried. 
These  tubes  were  in  the  possession  of  only  the 
''faculty,''  the  big  headed,  diminut  ve  and  rather 
venerable  looking  persons  who  evidently  ruled  the 
community  and  whose  disproportionate  power 
probably  sprang  from  the  magical  qualities  of  these 
same  tubes. 

A  tall,  morose  looking  Eskimo  had  approached 
us  in  a  threatening  manner  after  having  been 
ordered  into  the  group  who  were  to  take  charge  of 
us  for  the  mission  determined  upon  by  the  little 
chiefs.  Something  in  the  half  amused  inspection 
Spruce  Hopkins  made  of  him,  or  his  own  disap- 
pointment irritated  him,  and  with  a  sudden  angry 
cry  he  sprang  out  of  the  ranks,  his  face  distorted 
with  savage  fury,  and  raised  the  pole  or  spear  he 
carried  to  strike  Hopkins,  when  the  latter  "side- 
stepped," and  the  big  stick  thumped  harmlessly  on 
the  ground. 

Before  anyone  had  time  to  intervene  or  calculate 
the  creature's  next  move,  the  amiable  disputant 
who  had  taken  so  much  interest  in  us  nimbly 
jumped  before  the  man,  snatched  the  tube 
from  his  belt,  directed  it  at  Hopkins'  assailant, 
pressed  its  end  and  sent  the  fellow  sprawling  on  his 
back  in  apparent  agony.  There  was  no  sign  of  any 
discharge,  there  certainly  was  no  sound,  perhaps 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  235 

there  was  a  momentary  gleam  of  light ;  we  learned 
afterwards  that  there  must  have  been.  But  the 
moaning  ruffian  was  effectually  quailed,  and  the 
hush,  followed  by  a  low  quaver  of  satisfied  subjec- 
tion from  everyone,  indicated  the  supreme  power 
of  these  physically  impotent  magicians  over  their 
muscular  companions. 

"If  we  could  hand  over  a  few  of  those  pepper 
guns  to  the  New  York  police  the  gang,  thug,  and 
crook  fraternities  would  go  out  of  business  pretty 
quick.  Eh?"  said  Hopkins.  "That's  slicker  than 
chain  lightning." 

"A  powerful,  suddenly  produced  and  concentra- 
ted X-ray  elifect,"  commented  the  Professor. 

"Goritz,"  I  asked,  "where  have  you  put  the  gold 
images  and  trophies?  It  will  probably  be  best  for  us 
to  keep  them  pretty  well  out  of  sight." 

"Yes  I  know,"  returned  Goritz.  "I've  thought 
of  that.  They're  in  my  pack,  and  that  won't  get 
out  of  my  hands.     Don't  worry." 

The  main  mass  moved  forward.  There  was  a 
scurrying  to  and  fro,  and  a  downpour  of  acrobats 
from  the  trees.  Long  after  all  were  out  of  sight  we 
heard  the  hum  of  the  drums  and  dying  whir  of  the 
cymbals,  reaching  us  through  the  forest.  Then 
we  collided  with  another  detachment,  the  com- 
missariat, a  promiscuous  mixture  of  figures,  and 
with  them  small  flocks  of  goats.  First  came  plat- 
form cars  drawn  by  strong  big  rams,  piled  up  with 
what  looked  like  loaves  of  bread;  these  were  suc- 
ceeded by  the  rambling  goats  and  kids  leashed  in 
fours  and  fives,  and  driven  by  goatherds  of  the  little 
people,  all  wearing  the  universal  tunic  and  loose 
trousers;  then  more  cars  heaped  high  with  baskets 
or  hampers,  and  more  and  more,  till  Hopkins 
exultingly  declared: 

"Well,  we  shan't  starve.  I  guess  we've  dropped 
into  a  highly  developed  culture,  as  you  say  Prof., 


236  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

among  a  people  who  realize  the  foundation  prin- 
ciple of  enlightened  liv'ing,  a  full  and  diversified 
bread  basket." 

Just  at  the  moment  I  turned  and  looked  up  the 
slope  behind  us.  I  caught  through  a  straight  vista, 
almost  as  if  made  for  my  view,  the  shifting  lines  of 
the  Eskimos  with  the  gold  poles  and  the  black 
serpents.  Somehow  the  light  struck  them  and 
they  seemed  to  glitter  menacingly. 

"Yes!  Mr.  Hopkins,  we  have  dropped  down  on  a 
civilization  that  perhaps  is  the  most  ancient  on  the 
earth.  This  segregation  of  Adamites  has  developed 
in  this  strangely  protected  seclusion  a  peculiar 
knowledge,  a  knowledge,  I  am  beginning  to  suspect, 
only  dimly  anticipated  by  the  Curies,  Ramsays, 
Rutherfords,  Sollys. 

They  have  hit  upon  some  of  the  properties  of 
matter  by  which,  Mr.  Hopkins,  one  kind  of  matter 
becomes  another  kind,  through  radio-activity. 
The  prevalence  of  gold  amongst  them  may  be 
attributable  to  a  mother  lode  of  which  I  have 
spoken  before,  but  these  mysterious  tubes,  the 
radium-like  mass  in  the  zinc-blende  cave  in  the 
Deer  Eels,  this  utterly  inexplicable  light,  hints  at 
deeper  secrets.  And  yet,  sir,  with  this  last  triumph 
of  scientific  power  in  their  grasp  they  unite  an 
elemental  savage  worship  of  snakes  and  trees,  a 
vestigial  trace,  sir,  of  the  very  first  ages.  Then  it 
is  clear  there  is  a  peculiar  industrial  or  politico- 
economic  phase  of  society  conducted  on  a  division 
principle  of  fighters,  workers  and  thinkers,  a  sort  of 
analogue  to  the  formicary  and  the  apiary — the  ant 
and  the  bees.     Yes  sir!" 

This  last  word  was  in  recognition  of  Hopkins' 
enthusiastic  denotement  (with  extended  arms  and  a 
loud  ''Hurray,''  which  gathered  the  Eskimo  guard 
around  us  in  a  hurry  and  in  some  perplexity;  they 
were  relieved  when  some  speaking  signs  indicated 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  237 

Hopkins'  appreciation  of  "grape  juice,''  pure  or 
fermented),  of  the  last  wagons  closing  the  food 
supply  for  the  peripatetic  religious  carnival. 
These  were  also  platform  cars  on  the  rudely 
rounded  solid  wheels,  burnt  and  charred,  of 
pine  tree  sections,  but  on  them  were  huge  earthen- 
ware casks  like  the  immense  vessels  found  in  Peru, 
and  like  them  ornamented  with  colored  designs;  in 
this  case  manifold  variations,  conventionalized 
and  realistic  of  the  Serpent  and  the  Tree.  Their 
contents  were  unmistakable,  for  a  mere  water 
supply  was  almost  too  abundantly  found  in  the 
innumerable  brooks,  springs,  and  deep  pools  of  the 
Pine  Tree  forest. 

"We're  certainly  approaching  civilization  now. 
As  an  ultimate  evidence  of  man's  enlightenment, 
quantity  and  quality  of  hooze  are  complete.  The 
reign  of  reason  and  the  Dominion  of  John  Barley- 
corn are  simultaneous. 

"  'John  Barleycorn  was  a  hero  bold 

Of  noble  enterprise; 
For  if  you  do  but  taste  his  blood, 

'Twill  make  your  courage  rise. 
'Twill  make  a  man  forget  his  woes 

'Twill  brighten  all  his  joy 
'Twill  make  the  widow's  heart  to  sing 

Tho  the  tear  were  in  her  eye. 
Then  let  us  toast  John  Barleycorn, 

Each  man  a  glass  in  hand ; 
And  may  his  great  posterity 

Ne'er  fail  in  Krocker  Land.'  " 

To  let  the  provision  annex  pass  as  it  lumbered  by, 
while  tall  drivers  of  the  Eskimo  plied  long  whips 
whose  lashes  stung  the  air  with  rapid  reports,  and 
the  straining  rams  tugged  and  bolted,  we  had  been 
compelled  to  huddle  to  one  side  of  the  road.  This 
outbreak  of  Hopkins  and  the  Professor's  soliloquy 


238  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

were  amazing  to  our  guard  at  first,  but  as  soon  as  they 
half  comprehended  Hopkins'  pleasure  and  his 
musical  voice  sang  Burns'  apostrophe  they  became 
mightily  amused,  and  they  beamed  on  the  Ameri- 
can with  unstinted  confidence. 

Goritz,  who  knew  some  Eskimo  from  his  experi- 
ence in  Greenland,  attempted  to  talk  to  them,  but 
their  answers  were  unintelligible;  neither,  I  think 
did  they  understand  him,  and  it  is  also  certain  that 
they  did  not  converse  among  themselves  in  the 
Semitic  phrase  peculiar  to  the  little  men.  There 
was  very  little  talk  of  any  kind  amongst  them  or  us, 
and  after  the  ebullition  when  we  ran  into  the  wine 
cart,  we  relapsed  into  a  resigned  silence,  enjoying 
most  a  study  of  our  guard.  Nothing  had  been 
taken  from  us,  no  search  made  of  our  packs,  and  our 
guns  still  remained  apparently  unnoticed  in  our 
hands.  The  "little  doctors"  as  Hopkins  called 
them  had  indeed  looked  at  them  curiously,  and  I 
felt  certain  they  would  on  their  return  find  out  their 
uses  as  also  the  uses  of  our  instruments,  the  aneroid, 
thermometers,  chronometers,  clinometer,  artificial 
horizon,  all  of  which  we  had  regained  from  their 
hiding  place  below  the  pine  tree  from  whose  crown 
we  had  so  unexpectedly  descended. 

On,  on,  on,  we  tramped;  the  trees  became 
smaller,  more  distant,  and  an  open  ground  appeared 
before  us.  In  another  instant  it  was  succeeded  by 
an  even  denser  growth  of  younger  and  greener  pine 
trees;  the  road  turned  sharply;  it  crossed  the  thick 
screen;  another  turn  and,  like  a  vision,  the  central 
valley  of  Krocker  Land  unrolled  before  us,  an  end- 
less park,  seamed  by  silver  rivers,  clothed  in 
emerald  meads,  tenanted  by  incalculable  flocks, 
and  marbled  in  its  lighting,  by  an  incessant  drift  of 
clouds  that  threw  over  it  a  penumbral  shade. 

That  was  a  marvelous  moment,  Mr.  Link.  We 
were  dumb  with  admiration,  and  we  stood  still, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  239 

rooted  to  the  spot,  immobile  in  a  transport  of 
amazement.  Nothing  was  said  until  the  Professor 
half  audibly  murmured,  "The  Valley  of  Rasselas," 
and  the  captain  of  our  guard  pointing  to  the 
glorious  picture  muttered  to  himself.  Familiar  as 
they  were  with  the  scene  these  unemotional  men 
appreciated  our  astonishment,  and  allowed  us  to 
measure  with  our  eyes  the  grand  prospect.  There 
was  a  wayside  house  near  at  hand,  an  adobe  struc- 
ture of  red  and  yellow;  beyond  it  the  road  dipped, 
suddenly  passing  through  a  hewn  gateway  in  the 
clifTside  which  we  had  reached  and  which,  with 
varying  heights  and  undulating  limits,  enclosed 
like  a  mammoth  parapet  the  scene  of  peace  and 
loveliness  before  us. 

To  this  house  we  repaired.  It  was  evidently 
located  there  as  a  proscenium  box  for  the  con- 
templation of  the  ravishing  picture.  On  its  porch, 
most  fitly  placed,  we  sat  on  low  benches  and 
attempted  to  record  the  details  of  the  view,  by  our 
eyes  hardly  recorded  before,  so  lost  had  they  been  in 
the  enveloping,  slumbering  beauty.  The  cordiality 
of  our  hosts  was  perfect;  we  munched  spiced 
tortillas  and  drank  from  absurd  spherical  mugs  a 
pleasant,  ruby  colored  wine,  a  sort  of  Tokay. 
And  this,  sir,  is  what  we  saw. 

It  was  a  fiat  land  over  which  wandered  three 
separate  rivers,  fed  by  the  spouting  falls  that 
rushed  over  the  cliffside  from  many  points,  the 
gathered  waters  of  all  that  tracery  of  streams  in  the 
pine  forest.  Between  these  rivers  spread  vast 
meadows  or  fields,  thickly  patched  by  motionless — 
so  they  seemed — herds  of  sheep  and  goats  Braid- 
ing lines  or  hedges  of  trees  and  shrubs  parceled  the 
green  plains  into  checkers  and,  as  the  eye  passed 
outward,  these  hedges,  massing  themselves  in  per- 
spective, banked  the  horizon  with  a  continuous 
wood.     And  there  was  a  floating  colorfulness  in  the 


240  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

picture  besides,  a  roseate-blueness,  that  we  later 
discovered  came  from  an  abundant  wild  flower  like 
our  iris  which  nestled  over  acres  of  land  in  the  wetter 
spots.  And  far,  far  away  with  a  spectral  splendor 
rose  into  heaven  shafts,  or  one  monstrous  shaft,  of 
light.  It  glowed  and  pulsated,  changing  from  an 
opalescent  pearliness  to  the  hardened  glint  of  steel, 
anon  streaked  with  bluish  ribbons  like  a  spectrum. 
Nothing  could  be  more  wonderful. 

Playing  against  it  rose  what  seemed  a  volley 
from  steaming  cauldrons,  folded,  unfolded,  and 
drifting.  Following  this  magnificent  radiation  into 
the  sky  it  was  lost  in  a  wide  halo  or  pond  or  lake  of 
strangely  scintillating  light;  an  overspread  roof  of 
light  it  seemed,  forming  that  stationary  sun,  that 
from  end  to  end,  from  side  to  side  of  this  polar  bowl 
lit  its  manifold  circumferential  areas.  Thither  our 
fascinated  eyes  rose,  and  then  it  became  manifest 
that  the  overflowing  permeating  glory  of  this  scene 
resided  in  the  play  of  this  light,  apparently  forever 
\'eiled  by  nets  and  skeins  and  shifting  aureoles  of 
clouds,  that  somehow  formed  a  floor  beneath  it,  so 
that  its  emergent  rays,  as  in  our  sunsets  or  sun  ris- 
ings, shot  outward,  coronal-like  and  as  they 
encountered  the  perpetual  play  of  clouds  and 
vapors  as  perpetually  painted  them  in  colors.  A 
superb  and  marvelous  meteorology,  for  this  Valley 
of  Rasselas  thus  remained,  for  long  periods  perhaps, 
bathed  in  the  beauty  of  a  royal  sunrise  or  a  royal 
sunset. 

This  screening  from  the  downpour  of  the  light  of 
the  stationary  sun  was  certainly  a  beneficent  pro- 
vision, for  while  there  might  elapse  periods  when 
its  unchecked  blaze  smote  the  valley,  the  harsh 
ordeal  of  enduring  it  was  constantly  intermitted. 
It  was  clear  too  that  the  rainfall  was  excessive,  both 
here  and  in  the  pine  forest  we  had  traversed ;  that 
this  navel  of  the  world  was  a  watery  kingdom. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  241 

Even  as  we  gazed  the  pageant  of  the  sky  mys- 
teriously changed,  and  with  its  changes  the  com- 
plexion of  the  picture  earthward  underwent  delicate 
transmutations  too.  From  gay  to  sombre,  from  a 
wide  refulgence  to  a  twilight  grayness,  from  a 
flecked  radiance  to  the  transient  darkness  of  clotted 
clouds,  from  a  burning  splendor  of  illumination,  by 
which  things  lost  their  definition,  and  the  dazzling 
excess  of  light  blotted  out  details,  to  half  light, 
whereby  a  clearness  of  outlines  developed,  allowing 
us  to  measure  the  distance,  and  to  pick  out  house 
and  tree,  bush,  stream  and  rolling  mead.  We  were 
enraptured  by  reason  of  this  protean  aspect,  and 
watched  and,  still  lingering,  gazed,  unsatisfied. 

The  Eskimo  men  understood  our  delight  and  it 
brought  on  their  rather  apathetic  faces  a  smiling 
approval.  They  chattered  and  gesticulated  and 
surrendered  themselves  to  a  renewed  appreciation 
of  this  age-old  cradle,  in  which  they  had  grown  and 
lived,  strangely  associated  with  the  older  race, 
perhaps  of  some  Semitic  stock,  strangely  altered 
from  their  rude  forebears  and  separated  more 
strangely  still  with  their  associates  from  the  throng- 
ing world  of  men  outside  of  this  entrancing  cell  of 
earth,  and  yet  bearing  the  impress  of  traditions 
which  that  outer  world  had  created.  How  could 
it  be  explained?  Here  was  the  new  and  crowning 
marvel  of  the  centuries — Krocker  Land! 

A  floating  tree  trunk  had  indicated  to  Columbus 
the  vast  unknown  of  the  western  continent  and 
the  scattered  prognostications  of  geographers  had 
led  his  scientific  thought  steadily  forward  to  its 
prediction  and — it  was  found.  A  mountain's  dark- 
ness brushing  the  horizon  had  crossed  his  vision  as 
Admiral  Peary  looked  westward  through  his  glass, 
and  betokened  yet  untrod  tracts  of  earth;  the 
vagaries  of  the  tides  submitted  to  scientific  compu- 
tation had  proven  to  Harris  their  positive  existence, 


242  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

and  now  to  us,  four  froward,  unknown  men,  it  was 
vouchsafed  to  establish  in  facts  these  symptomatic 
guesses. 

But  our  discovery  was  enriched  by  unsuspected 
marvels;  this  immense  polar  depression,  like  a  dent 
in  the  crust  of  the  earth,  the  peculiar  succession  of 
dropping  zones,  their  physiographic  contrasts,  the 
stupendous  circular — so  we  supposed — rift  which 
framed  them,  its  igneous  depths,  that  incessant  up- 
pouring  of  steam  devising  a  curtain  of  cloud  around 
this  screened  continent,  the  perpetual  chain  of 
changes  in  the  precipitation  of  the  condensed 
vapors  renewed  again  by  evaporation,  the  survival 
of  saurian  life,  the  meteorological  perplexities 
introduced,  the  bewildering  fact  of  an  ethnic  evolu- 
tion in  these  small  people,  their  peculiar  associa- 
tion with  a  dependent  Eskimo  race,  the  suggestion 
of  Adamic  traces,  the  apparent  control  over 
advanced  chemical  agencies,  this  indigenous  tree 
and  serpent  worship  hinting  at  ancestral  influences 
lost  in  the  shadows  of  the  very  beginning,  and  then, 
more  incredible  than  the  wildest  dreams  of  fiction, 
this  impossible  stationary  sun,  sustaining  this  little 
segregated  world,  feeding  it  with  light  and  heat,  an 
unimaginable  oasis  in  the  incalculable  desert  of 
Arctic  snows  and  ice.  WHAT  WAS  IT?  Upon 
what  miracle  of  matter  were  we  advancing? 

I  was  lost  in  such  reflexions  when  an  exclamation 
from  the  Eskimo — sounding  like  ibbley — and  a 
hand  clapped  on  my  shoulder  straightened  me  into 
attention.  The  pool  of  clouds  over  the  valley 
whose  inconstant  movement  alternately  veiled  and 
revealed  the  light  beyond  them,  had  parted,  as 
though  a  sudden  wind  had  pierced  it  and  driven  its 
parts  in  rapid  and  eccentric  flight  to  all  sides,  as  a 
stone  dropped  in  a  pond  sends  the  waves  shoreward, 
and,  past  the  rift,  we  saw  through  the  rising  vapors, 
beyond  the  rigid,  fan  shaped  prism  yet  involved  in 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  243 

it,  an  incandescent  surface  like  a  mammoth  shield, 
a  shield  covering  acres  of  space,  and  over  it  again, 
and  yet  perhaps  miles  and  miles  further  away,  the 
solemn  grandeur  of  an  ice  capped  lofty  mountain. 

It  was  a  glimpse  only;  an  instant  later  the 
refluent  clouds  had  flung  themselves  together  again, 
in  the  ceaseless  to  and  fro,  and,  as  I  thought,  rotary 
motion,  that  conveyed  such  a  changeable  expres- 
sion to  that  peaceful  hidden  vale. 

That  glimpse,  Mr.  Link,  is  the  memory  of  a 
lifetime,  it  was  a  picture  so  inwrought  with  the 
occasion  and  my  own  feelings  as  to  remain  with  me 
a  deathless  vision. 

"I  suppose  this  extraordinary  pseudo-sun" 
said  the  Professor  after  some  moments'  silence  "is 
the  most  astounding  thing  we  have  seen.  It  is 
certainly  unaccountable.  Its  power  to  illuminate, 
warm  and  enliven  this  little  continent  within  the 
circle  of  the  Perpetual  Nimbus  surpasses  compre- 
hension. On  what  theory  of  physics — for  of  course 
it  is  not  an  extra-terrestrial  phenomenon — can  it  be 
accounted  for?" 

"How  about  this  Radium.  There's  light  and 
heat  in  that  isn't  there?"    asked  Hopkins. 

"Of  course,  as  we  know  it  in  its  bromide  salt. 
But  the  radium  couldn't  be  a  fixed  object  in  the 
sky,  and,  if  on  the  earth,  what  fixes  its  rays  or  con- 
verges them  on  one  spot,  and  what  is  the  radiant 
material  of  that  spot  itself?" 

"I  have  been  thinking,"  said  Goritz,  standing  up, 
while  our  Eskimo  escort  gathered  around  us,  and 
listened  with  a  gravity  that  half  persuaded  me 
they  understood  us,  "I  have  been  thinking  that 
there  is  a  vortex  of  dust  up  there  in  that  nebulous 
mass,  that  heat  and  light  reach  it  from  some  terres- 
trial source  and  are  again  reflected  earthward. 
Would  that  meet  the  problem?" 

"Perhaps,"  assented  the  Professor,  and  even  as 


244  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

he  spoke  the  Hght  everywhere  about  us  diminished, 
so  that  the  valley  became  hidden  in  a  most  dismal 
half  light,  and  then  that  feeble  illumination 
vanished,  and  we  were  literally  plunged  in  darkness. 
Waning  of  the  light,  amounting  sometimes  almost 
to  extinction,  and  lasting  for  some  hours,  had  been 
constantly  observed  by  us  on  our  journey  from  the 
coast,  but  nothing  so  complete  as  this.  We  were 
pretty  well  astonished,  and  remained  silent,  expect- 
ing some  novel  demonstration,  for  now  we  had 
become  so  convinced  of  our  immersion  in  a  sea  of 
Sinbad-like  adventure,  that  we  were  not  only  pre- 
pared but  almost  impatient  for  still  newer  and 
newer  and  stranger  happenings. 

The  Eskimos  were  as  silent  as  ourselves,  but 
when  in  perhaps  half  an  hour  the  light  revealed 
itself  again  in  the  sky,  as  spluttering  radiations, 
somewhat  like  the  splattering  of  sparks  about  a 
slowly  reconstructed  arc  light,  and  then  became 
continuous,  and  then  gradually  swelled  to  its 
original  intensity,  and  the  valley  once  more 
glowed  under  our  eyes,  they  began  singing.  It 
seemed  to  be  some  hymn  or  religious  chant  and  we 
connected  it  at  once  with  superstitious  feeling  over 
the  removal  and  renewal  of  the  light. 

It  was  a  wearisome  iterative  sing-song  drone, 
rising  and  falling  in  pitch,  and  sometimes  deriving 
a  rhythmical  accent  from  the  clapping  of  their 
hands.  The  voices  were  not  unmusical,  and  there 
was  enough  vocality  in  the  words  to  even  elicit  an 
approach  to  charm.  When  later  we  heard  this 
same  song  sung  by  thousands,  its  reinforced  effec- 
tiveness produced  a  positive  spell. 

It  was  time  to  proceed;  our  guard  evidently 
thought  so.  The  captain  shook  us  each  by  the  arm, 
pointed  down  the  road,  and  we  tramiped  away, 
watched  eagerly  by  the  few  inmates  of  this  road- 
side house — a  man,  his  wife,  and  three  rabbit-eyed. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  245 

almost  naked  kids.  The  road  passed  through  a 
gateway  of  stone,  hewn  in  the  cliffs,  and  with  a 
moderate  grade  conducted  us  some  ten  hundred 
feet  in  vertical  descent,  into  the  Valley  of  Rasselas. 
It  was  the  last  step  on  our  long  journey,  the  goal 
of  dreams  had  been  reached,  Krocker  Land  was 
discovered,  and  now  the  revelation  was  to  be 
crowned  by  a  closing  and  incalculable  drama. 


CHAPTER  X 
Radiumopolis 

There  had  been  noticeable  for  some  time  a 
change  in  temperature  It  grew  colder  and  the 
recurrent  periods  of  darkness  were  more  frequent. 
It  almost  seemed  as  if  the  stationary  sun  responded 
to  the  secular  changes  produced  by  the  apparent  mo- 
tion of  the  firmamental  sun,  and  that,  while  light  re- 
mained, a  reduced  form  of  winter  might  still  be  ex- 
pected in  this  oddly  conditioned  corner  of  the  earth. 

Already  in  some  way  the  rumor  of  our  approach 
had  spread  far  and  wide.  The  fields  were  at  first 
crossed  by  solitary  figures  trooping  to  the  roadside 
to  see  the  strangers.  These  were  shepherds  of  the 
great  flocks  of  goats  and  sheep,  whose  slowly  shift- 
ing masses  drifted  over  the  meadow  in  irregular 
blotches  of  white  and  brown  and  black.  At  times, 
where  we  crossed  marshy  exposures  on  either  side  of 
us,  the  gurgle  of  chattering  water  fowl  reached  us, 
and  then  when  we  attained  a  higher  ground  hosts 
of  red  and  blue  iris-like  plants  clothed  the  edges  of 
the  fields,  from  whose  corollas  rose,  like  a  visible 
incense,  innumerable  white  and  yellow  moths  or 
butterflies.  It  all  was  transcendently  novel  and 
interesting,  and  though  occasionally  we  shivered 
when  some  chilliness  entered  the  air,  from  passing 
breezes  flung  into  the  valley  from  the  vast  cold  out- 
side, we  almost  forgot  our  discomfort  in  our  excite- 
ment and  enthrallment. 

246 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  247 

The  spectators  along  the  route  became  more 
numerous,  a  wide-eyed,  open  mouthed  throng,  at 
first  scarcely  vocal,  just  an  amused,  staring 
audience.  They  were  made  up  of  the  larger 
serving,  working  class — those  I  have  designated  as 
Eskimos — and  they  hung  over  each  other's 
shoulders  in  mute  astonishment,  their  black  eyes 
sharply  scrutinizing  us,  and  very  often  their  fingers 
pushed  out  in  expressive  glee  at  the  Professor, 
whose  superb  shabbiness  and  challenging  splendor 
of  hair  always  evoked  the  liveliest  pleasure. 

But  as  we  advanced,  mile  upon  mile,  over  a  road 
of  perfect  construction — evenly  arched  and  well 
ditched  on  both  sides — we  observed  a  changing 
character  in  our  audience.  The  little  people  were 
thronging  in.  They  came  from  distant  low  villages 
and  they  imparted  a  contrasted  demeanor  to  the 
wayside.  They  were  mildly  clamorous  and  critical. 
They  broke  into  ejaculations,  hallooed  salutations, 
and  extended  comments  which  kept  them  amused 
and  vibrating  with  curiosity.  A  few  sombre  older 
people  remained  silent  or  grunted  a  few  monosyl- 
lables to  each  other,  but  the  younger  element  was 
quite  irrepressible.  At  one  place  where  the  road 
crossed  a  village  community,  the  guards  had  to 
become  rigorous  in  maintaining  an  open  path  for  us, 
and  into  large  trees — a  tree  that  here  resembled  the 
top-heavy  Pawlonia  of  Asia — urchins  nimble  as 
monkeys  had  climbed  in  clusters,  and  dropped  on  us 
nuts  and  grain  and  leaves. 

"Well  the  kids  have  the  right  spirit.  I  feel  more 
at  home  now  when  the  enfant  terrible  shows  up. 
Where  the  youngsters  have  a  sense  of  fun  it  seems 
to  me  the  fathers  won't  have  gotten  so  far  beyond 
it,  as  to  serve  us  up  in  an  imperial  banquet,  cut  off 
our  heads  as  intruders,  or  feed  us  to  the  Crocodilo- 
Python,"  said  Hopkins  to  me  who  was  just  along- 
side of  him.     "I'm   half  afraid   they've  taken  a 


248  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

shine  to  us,  and  will  have  us  up  in  some  municipal 
museum  for  the  education  of  the  public.  I  feel 
anxious  about  the  Professor.  They  surely  think 
he's  a  most  attractive  wild  beast." 

And  now  we  were  trudging  through  a  farm  land; 
agricultural  acres  expanded  before  and  around  us; 
the  bean,  wheat,  rye;  the  grape,  apple,  cherry; 
clover  fields  and  honey  hives  were  in  evidence, 
though  the  harvesting — far  later  than  in  the  south, 
a  singular  inversion  again  proceeding  from  the 
influence  of  the  stationary  sun — had  been  com- 
pleted. The  red  and  yellow  houses  of  adobe  tile  or 
brick  were  gathered  in  small  clusters  and  when, 
over  long  distances  they  sprinkled  the  tawny  or 
sear  landscape  with  patches  of  bright  color,  like  bits 
of  new  cloth  on  a  worn  gown,  the  effect  was  delight- 
ful. 

Our  spirits  rose;  although  prisoners  over  whom 
no  doubt  some  national  parley  or  pow-wow  would 
be  seriously  held,  and  although  distrustful  of  the 
obsequious  gestures  (most  decidedly  so  in  my  case) 
with  which  the  "little  doctors"  had  invited  us  to 
return  with  the  guard  to  the  somewhere  we  must 
be  now  approaching,  still  the  winning  charm  of  the 
land,  the  agreeable  manners  of  the  little  people,  and 
the  stolid  unconcern  of  the  larger  race  half  con- 
vinced me  that  our  fate  wouldn't  be  a  tragic  one. 
Our  most  ominous  thoughts  were  connected  with 
those  dreadful  metal  tubes! 

I  took  occasion  to  study  the  people.  The  larger 
serving  or  inferior  class  were  Mongolian  in  type; 
they  resembled  a  taller,  more  slender  and  less  in- 
telligent Eskimo  norm,  but  the  little  people  pre- 
sented a  surprising  range  of  individual  variation. 
The  tallest  of  these  latter  were  almost  four  feet  in 
height,  the  smallest  scarcely  exceeded  three. 
Literally  they  were  a  boreal  pygmy  race.  The 
dominating  peculiarity  among  them  was  a   ten- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  249 

dency  to  macrocephalism  which  in  the  "Httle 
doctors"  became  exaggerated,  and  made  them 
overbalanced  and  grotesque.  In  many  the  heads 
did  not  too  obviously  exceed  a  normal  size,  and  the 
lower  limbs  were  almost  normally  developed, 
giving  them  shapeliness.  The  women  were  very 
strikingly  less  afflicted  wuth  "big-headedness,"  and 
in  them  too  the  nose,  attaining  among  the  men  a 
preponderant  magnitude  was  much  more  moderate 
in  size.  Many  of  the  young  women  were  very 
pretty,  a  few  almost  beautiful,  and  the  becoming 
attire  of  the  tunic,  the  loose  trousers  bound,  in 
many  instances,  with  gold  anklets,  the  abundant 
black  hair  coiled  up  in  coronal  chignons,  and  sinu- 
ously decorated  with  the  gold  serpent-shaped  pins, 
administered  a  piquant  loveliness.  Generally  the 
men  were  not  so  attractive;  an  unpleasant  lanki- 
ness  of  limb,  and  (because  of  a  deficient  dental 
development)  sunken  cheeks,  with  narrow  chests, 
and  their  unusual  heads,  on  which  too  in  a  great 
number  of  cases  an  extreme  scantiness  of  hair  was 
observable,  robbed  them  of  physical  rhythm  and 
proportion.  But  again  among  them  were  also 
striking  exceptions,  and  these  gained  immensely  in 
comeliness  from  the  average  homeliness  of  their 
associates.  The  older  men  universally  afTected 
beards,  which  some  compensatory  whim  in  nature 
made  abundant.     All  were  dark. 

My  greatest  achievement  in  observation  on  this 
long  march  was  the  certain  identification  of  the 
language  with  a  Semitic  tongue,  and  the  detection 
among  the  taller  people  of  an  Eskimo  dialect.  This 
last  discovery  was  made  by  the  help  of  Goritz, 
whose  knowledge  of  the  eastern  Eskimo  dialects 
was  extensive,  although  he  at  first  questioned  my 
conclusions.  The  reasons  are  philological  and  I 
pass  over  them.  I  hope  to  discuss  the  matter 
before  the  congress  of  Americanists,  to  be  held  in 


250  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Philadelphia  next  year.  It  is  enough  for  the  fol- 
lowing chapters  of  my  narrative  to  say  that  I 
became  proficient  (reasonably  so)  through  my 
intimate  acquaintance  with  Hebrew,  with  the 
speech  of  the  "little  doctors,"  and  Goritz  acquired 
a  less  facile  mastery  of  the  Eskimo  tongue.  The 
recognition  of  corruption  in  sound  of  a  few  conso- 
nants and  a  peculiar  ellipsis  of  some  vowels,  in  the 
first  case,  accomplished  the  feat  for  myself.  When 
I  told  Hopkins  of  my  success  he  was  overjoyed. 

"Alfred,  that  is  dandy.  If  we  can  tell  what 
they're  talking  about,  and  get  a  line  on  their  plans 
we'll  skin  through  all  right.  W^hen  the  proper 
moment  comes  let  'em  know  you're  wise  to  their 
gibberish,  and  they'll  take  water  quick  enough. 
Why,  we  might  start  a  revolution,  if  they  try  to  put 
it  over  us.  The  big  fellows  could  sweep  them  like 
chafT— and  then  our  GUNS." 

"Yes,"  I  curtly  interjected.  "And  their  tubes?" 
Spruce  was  silent. 

We  had  now  been  five  days  on  our  march  and  our 
progress  had  been  alternately  hastened  and  re- 
tarded by  the  curiosity  of  the  people.  Hastened 
when  messages  from  nearby  villages  along  the  road 
came  to  our  captain  urging  speed,  that  the  citizens 
of  these  country  communities  might  inspect  us  a 
little  longer;  retarded  by  reason  of  this  same 
importunity  to  allow  the  gathering  countryside  the 
gratification  of  the  show.  For  literally  we  had 
become  that,  and  had  there  been  an  enterprising 
manager  to  exploit  our  novelty  his  receipts  would 
have  been  enviable.  The  crowds  increased,  the 
rumor  of  our  approach  spread  on  every  side,  and  to 
meet  their  unappeasable  wonder  over  our  appear- 
ance we  were  stuck  up  on  platforms  in  the  squares 
or  open  places  in  the  villages  and  watched,  studied 
and  applauded  by  the  insatiable  throngs.  It  was 
indeed  a  stupifying  experience.     Certainly  it  was 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  251 

abundantly  ludicrous  and  amusing  as  well. 
Hopkins  of  course  enjoyed  it.  Goritz  was  patient 
and  obscurely  piqued  by  it,  the  Professor  regarded 
it  as  ethnologically  delightful,  and  I  took  advantage 
of  the  display  to  note  the  people  and  their  speech. 

"I  have  served  a  good  many  purposes  in  my  life," 
said  Hopkins,  "but  I  never  supposed  I'd  make  a 
drawing  card  in  a  traveling  circus.  Our  united 
effect  is  really  gorgeous.  I  should  think  they 
might  improve  the  show  by  some  fresh  clothes. 
But  say — the  Professor  is  immense.  And  he 
TAKES.  The  way  they  shout  and  rubberneck 
to  get  nearer  to  him  will  start  something  doing. 
If  the  Professor  only  had  a  little  political  ambition 
and  an  ounce  of  sense  he'd  organize  a  campaign 
that  would  land  him  in  the  presidential  chair. 
And  then!  Well  then  we'd  all  be  prime  ministers, 
and  hand  out  the  dope  to  these  babies  in  a  manner 
so  impressive  that  we'd  hold  the  job  down  tight, 
until  we  could  get  away  with  the  loot.  We'd  make 
Goritz  treasurer  and  he'd  come  the  Tammany  act 
on  'em  so  strong  that  maybe  we  could  leave  with  all 
the  goods  worth  having  in  the  country,  in  our  jeans. 
Eh? 

"Look  at  'em,  now,  surveying  the  Professor.  I 
feel  an  artistic  jealousy  of  that  red  hair  of  his.  It 
certainly  has  'em  guessing.  Perhaps  they  think 
it's  a  kind  of  halo,  always  on  fire.  He  certainly 
must  keep  it  on  his  head.  It's  our  salvation.  Let 
the  local  barbers  touch  that,  and  find  out  it's  just 
plain  scissorable  wool,  and  we're  in  the  soup — and 
the  Professor?  Well,  they  won't  do  a  thing 
to  him." 

This  fifth  day  turned  out  to  be  the  last  one  of  our 
march.  A  memorable  day  it  was.  Larger  and 
larger  grew  the  crowds;  they  met  us,  streaming 
along  evidently  from  some  near  point  of  population, 
and,  as  now  the  captain  of  our  guard  would  allow 


252  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

no  delay  or  halt,  we  assumed  that  our  destination 
was  almost  at  hand.  Attaining  it  formed  a  new 
thrill. 

We  had  come  to  a  marked  irregularity  in  the  topo- 
graphic monotony  of  the  valley,  a  high,  evenly 
sloped  ridge  curving  away  on  either  side,  which 
might  be  the  arc  of  a  continuous  or  completed 
circle,  or  just  a  natural  accident.  The  broad  road 
ascended  this  hill.  We  had  just  stepped  out  on  the 
summit,  when  one  of  the  intermittent  light  flashes 
or  sunbursts  blazed  on  the  strange  scene  before  our 
eyes.  We  were  looking  into  a  dish-like  area,  for 
such  it  seemed,  as  we  could  trace  north  and  south 
the  circumvallation  of  the  ridge,  and  it  was  filled 
with  settlements  which  became  denser  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  in  that  distance  (later  we  discovered  it 
was  about  the  center  of  the  circular  enclosure)  rose 
the  dazzling  pediments,  stories  and  wings,  of  a 
GOLD  HOUSE. 

Nothing  could  be  more  astonishing.  Instinc- 
tively we  came  to  a  full  stop  and  gazed.  And  our 
companions,  familiar  with  the  spectacle,  were 
arrested  by  the  sudden  apocalyptic  flashing  of  light 
from  the  burnished  building,  as  "of  summer  light- 
ning on  a  dark  night  suddenly  exposing  unsuspected 
realms  of  fantastic  and  poetical  suggestion."  (A 
line,  Mr.  Link,  I  found  last  night  in  a  book  by 
George  Saintsbury.)  But  the  suggestions  here  were 
overwhelmingly  fantastic. 

Imagine  a  swelling  mound  tapering  to  a  narrow 
platform,  itself  created  by  the  leveling  art  of  the 
engineers,  surmounted  by  a  curiously  heaped  up 
succession  of  stories,  which  were  buttressed  below 
by  extensions  and  porticoes,  and  frescoed  or 
incrusted  throughout  by  rude  and  hieratic  orna- 
mentation— an  ornamentation  that  certainly  had 
more  lucidity  than  the  confused  medley  of  symbol 
and  ideograph  at  Copan,  but  which  had  not  yet 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  253 

freed  itself  from  a  mixture  of  extravagance  and 
realism.  Then  finally  imagine  this  executed  in 
what  seemed  to  be  pure  gold,  and  all  glittering  in  a 
quick  concentration  of  light.  It  was  refulgent  and 
it  was  unearthly.  Below  it  spread  the  dull  tawni- 
ness  of  an  outreaching  terracotta  city. 

"What  have  we  come  to?"  faltered  Goritz,  who 
was  transfixed  by  this  new  wonder. 

"It  might  be  called,"  said  Hopkins,  "the  Desire 
of  All  Nations;  at  least  it  would  look  that  way  to  a 
thoroughbred  anywhere  inside  of  Christendom.  I 
wonder  how  long  that  pile  would  stand  on  the 
principal  street  of  the  capitals  of  the  world!  The 
army,  with  fixed  bayonets,  shot  guns,  and  dynamite 
bombs,  couldn't  keep  the  gentlemen  of  America  or 
the  spend-thrifts  of  Europe  from  getting  their 
hooks  in  somewhere.  I  think  it  must  be  the  Casino ; 
nothing  short  of  Policy  or  Poker  could  keep  up  an 
establishment  like  that.  Gold  must  be  very  cheap 
hereabouts,  or  else  the  people  need  a  little  free 
schooling  as  to  the  particular  and  pleasant  uses  it 
can  be  put  to.     Looks  that  way." 

"Ah,"  spoke  up  the  Professor.  "Barter,  primal 
conditions,  prevail  here,  where  a  medium  of 
exchange  is  hardly  needed.  Gold  to  these  people  is 
a  color,  an  ornament.  With  it  they  have  no  more 
than  without  it,  for  every  desire  is  satisfied,  and 
the  pride  of  possession  or  the  sentiment  of  avarice 
is  unknown.  All  are  equally  happy,  and  all  are 
equally  rich  or  poor.  Gold  has  an  interest  to  them 
because  it  pleases  the  eye,  and  it  is  here  dedicated 
to  personal  or  religious  distinctions,  but  as  wealth, 
in  our  sense,  it  has  no  value.  These  flocks,  these 
acres  of  grain  and  fruits,  mean  subsistence,  but 
GOLD  is  something  to  look  at — simply.  Its  name 
here  has  probably  no  meaning  of  commercial 
utility." 

"Pretty  good  for  the  eyes  though, ^Professor," 


254  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

was  Hopkins'  rejoinder,  "and  as  for  the  name  I 
don't  recall  anything 

Which  acts  so  direct,  and  with  so  much  effect 
On  the  human  sensorium,  or  makes  one  erect 
One's  ears  so,  as  soon  as  the  sound  we  detect, 

unless  perhaps — it  might  be — BEER — in  a 
drought." 

"Well,"  in  an  undertone  from  Goritz,  "if  Gold 
has  no  practical  uses  in  this  outlandish  nook  of  the 
world,  we  can  take  enough  of  it  away  with  us  to  a 
place  where  it's  more  useful  than  ornamental." 

"Have  a  care,"  warned  Hopkins.  "Our  heads 
had  better  be  kept  on  our  shoulders,  too.  Re- 
member, Goritz,  you've  considerable  loot  in  your 
pack  now.  If  they  give  us  the  third  degree,  and 
start  in  on  a  customs  house  search,  we  may  get  to 
another  place  where — where  Gold  wouldn't  be 
worth  the  handling,  because  of  the  heat,  or  other- 
wise, or  because  our  immediate  necessities  were 
otherwise  provided  for." 

All  this  while  we  were  again  rapidly  moving  on, 
and  wuth  each  step,  while  the  marvel  before  us 
grew  larger,  plainer,  some  of  its  first  surprising 
effectiveness  changed.  It  began  to  be  seen  that  it 
was  little  more  than  a  piled  up  structure  of  the 
communal  dwellings  which  dotted  the  plain  beneath 
it,  but  on  it  a  queer  aboriginal  fancy  had  stuck 
plates  of  gold, — or  what  seemed  to  be  gold — and 
that  its  corners  were  decorated  with  upraised 
standards  of  gold  delineating  the  patron  god,  or 
demon,  of  the  establishment,  the  Crocodilo- 
Python.  Over  it  too  in  whirls  and  corkscrew 
spirals  spread  innumerable  folded  scrolls  and  wind- 
ing figures  whose  lumpy  extremities  betokened  the 
heads  of  snakes.  It  was  not  long  before  we  had 
gained  the  heart  of  the  city.  Everywhere  it  had 
been    a  monotonous  series  of  the  tile  huts,  stuck  in 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  255 

tiers,  one  series  over  another,  such  as  description 
and  photographs  have  made  so  familiar  from  the 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico  region.  There  was  now  a 
much  smaller  admixture  of  the  taller  people,  and  the 
little  men  and  women  appeared  to  be  almost  the 
only  occupants  of  the  city. 

We  had  come  almost  underneath  the  pimple-like 
excrescence  on  which  the  golden  habitation  sat, 
like  a  yellow  corolla  on  the  green  bulb  of  a  thistle, 
and  we  found  a  space  surrounding  it  of  about  a 
thousand  feet  in  width,  filled  with  enclosures 
holding,  to  our  amazement,  large  black  snakes,  the 
congeners  exactly  of  those  held  aloft,  in  the  proces- 
sion we  had  met,  on  golden  rods.  The  walls  of 
these  enclosures  were  of  tile  or  rudely  baked  bricks; 
some  were  screened  with  an  open  wicker  work, 
which  in  many  instances  had  become  dilapidated 
or  were  quite  worthless  as  fences  to  prevent  the 
egress  of  the  snakes.  In  the  enclosure  bushes  and 
weedy  herbs  flourished,  and  their  occupants  hung 
from  the  branches  of  these  or  torpidly  lay  in  the 
grass  beneath,  in  repulsive  bunches.  I  admit  my 
unreasonable  aversion  to  snakes,  and  these  extra- 
ordinary protected  nurseries  overcame  me  with 
disgust.  Hopkins  was  hardly  less  disturbed.  To 
the  Professor  and  to  Goritz  they  were  manifestly 
attractive. 

"St.  Patrick  can't  be  the  patron  saint  here,"  said 
Hopkins,  "and  whatever  language  they  speak  it 
pretty  certainly  is  not  Irish.  I  think  no  one  could 
mistake  their  brogue  for  anything  heard  in  Cork  or 
Dublin.  As  for  the  snakes,  I  guess  what  Bobbie 
Burns  said  to  the  louse  will  fit  them, 

'Ye  ugly  creepin,  blastit  wonners, 
Detested,  shunn'd  by  saunt  and  sinners.'  " 

"Every  step  we  take,"  solemnly  rejoined  the  Pro- 
fessor, "discloses  new  wonders.     To  me  it  is  quite 


256  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

evident  that  the  trail  of  the  ethnic  origins  of  Tree 
and  Serpent  worship  crosses  the  pole!" 

"Yes,"  shouted  Hopkins,  "and  to  me,  it's  quite 
evident  that  the  trail  of  these  reptiles  crosses  ours. 
Look  out  there!" 

He  pointed  ahead  and  over  the  road  stretched 
the  wriggling  bodies  of  twenty  or  thirty  faintly 
spotted  black  snakes,  sleek  and  graceful,  their  heads 
raised  indifferently  in  a  cool  inspection  of  our 
approach,  and  their  tongues  quivering  in  defiance. 

As  soon  as  they  were  perceived  by  our  guard,  the 
leader  raised  his  hand,  and  we  waited  for  their 
ophidian  majesties  to  satisfy  their  curiosity,  and 
pass  on,  which  they  did,  swaying  the  cropped  grass 
on  the  wayside  and  vanishing  into  one  of  the 
neighboring  pounds  over  its  loosened  dejected 
blocks.  It  was  quite  clear  that  the  city  of  Radium- 
opolis — so  we  came  to  distinguish  it  later — might 
prove  unpleasantly  full  of  these  creatures,  for  whom 
the  citizens  maintained  a  most  disagreeably  pious 
regard.  It  reminded  the  Professor  of  the  great 
center  of  Serpent  Worship  at  Epidaurus,  where 
stood  the  famous  temple  to  Aesculapius  and  the 
grove  attached  to  it  in  which  serpents  were  kept 
and  fed,  down  to  the  time  of  Pausanius. 

Once  over  the  peripheral  plain  we  began  the 
ascent  of  the  mound  at  its  center.  There  was  a 
simple  stateliness  about  this  terraced  rise  of  steps, 
formed  of  a  red  tile  or  brick,  from  its  very  gradual 
recession  and  its  extreme  width.  Here  our  eyes 
measured  and  studied  the  astonishing  house,  or 
temple,  or  Capitol,  which  was  to  be  for  us  doubtless 
a  "house  of  detention"  also. 

It  was  a  square  composite,  with  openings  on  three 
sides — those  we  could  see — and  pierced  by  window 
embrasures,  sensibly  regular  in  their  spacing. 
Porches  extended  outward  from  the  openings  and 
on  these  a  little  rather  unsuccessful  decorative  con- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  257 

struction  had  been  expended.  Over  each  porch 
entrance  was  the  literal  reproduction  in  gold  and  in 
stucco  of  the  local  deity,  in  addition  to  the  upraised 
images — careening  and  expanded  like  hippogriffs — 
at  the  four  corners  of  the  building.  These  latter 
were  made  entirely  of  gold,  and  represented  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  dollars.  It  was  indeed 
stupifying  to  estimate  their  probable  value. 

The  gold  surface  of  the  Capitol  proved  to  be  a 
plaster  ng  of  gold  plates,  not  so  well  or  so  carefully 
executed  as  to  preclude  the  constant  exposure  of  the 
underlying  adobe.  But  this  prodigious  prodigality 
of  gold  was  again  most  incredible. 

We  were  conducted  at  once  into  the  Acropolis 
so  the  Professor  styled  it — noting  before  we  entered 
a  serviceable  courtyard  around  it,  which  secured  a 
little  dignity  from  a  wall  of  bricks  interrupted  by 
higher  pillars,  and  also  rimmed  with  gold.  Enter- 
ing a  broad  hallway  we  were  overcome  by  the 
pervasive  softly  emitted  radiance  from  lamps  of 
mineral  on  clumsy  stands,  and  held  on  round  gold 
saucers  or  servers. 

"Radium,"  said  the  Professor.  "It  is  exactly  as 
I  have  been  suspecting.  These  people  have  gained 
access  to  some  vast  deposit  of  this  miracle-working 
element.  It  not  unreasonably  may  be  supposed 
that  it  is  exposed  in  some  chasm  in  the  crust  of  the 
earth,  entering  to  great  depths,  and  perhaps 
impinging  on  such  central  masses  as  have  been 
interpolated  in  some  recent  physical  speculations, 
as  giving  rise  to  the  static  heat  of  the  earth.  Here 
we  probably  have  an  explanation  of  the  abundance 
of  gold — transmutation!  And  here  too  some 
adequate  explanation  of  the  stationary  sun  rays 
converted  by  reflection  'nto  light  and  heat — As- 
tounding! Astounding!!    Astounding!!!" 

To  me  the  fascination,  in  a  way,  of  all  this  mix- 
ture of  wonders  and  horrors  (the  snake  and  later 


258  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

discoveries  and  episodes)  and  primal  simplicity,  was 
just  that  incalculable  oddness  or  mystery  of  the 
conjunction  of  some  almost  superhuman  power 
with  the  weird  religion  and  the  archaic  habits.  I 
cannot  describe  how  perversely  it  affected  me, 
sometimes  raising  my  interest  to  a  fever  heat,  and 
again  filling  me  with  a  tormenting  fury  of  desire  to 
make  my  escape. 

We  passed  through  the  hall,  our  guard,  at  some 
gesture  from  the  captain,  closing  around,  and  as  we 
emerged  at  its  further  end,  again  upon  the  outside 
court,  I,  looking  back,  saw  attendants  cover  the 
radium  masses  with  opaque  caps.  We  were  now  in 
a  somewhat  contrasted  entourage.  On  this  side 
of  the  Capitol  the  city  seemed  excluded,  and  a 
rather  thick  wood  and  an  untamed  undergrowth, 
through  which  however  stretched  a  broad  highway, 
monopolized  the  ground  westward.  We  had 
entered  both  the  city  and  the  Capitol  from  the 
east.  In  an  adjoining  yard  at  the  foot  of  another 
symmetrically  disposed  terrace  of  steps  was  a 
closed  tenement,  and  into  this  we  were  led. 

Imagine  our  delight  to  find  it  occupied  by  an 
immense  basin  or  pool,  into  which  two  conduits 
poured  hot  and  cold  water.  The  immense  bath 
was  even  then  gently  steaming;  the  outer  air  had 
grown  increasingly  colder.  Rough  masonry 
couches,  covered  with  rugs,  had  been  built  against 
the  walls,  and  on  the  edge  of  the  huge  tank 
were  scattered  white  chunks  which,  at  first  con- 
ceived to  be  soap,  turned  out  to  be  an  indifferent 
substitute,  in  the  shape  of  an  unctuous  and  gritty 
clay. 

This  delightful  prospect  almost  brought  shouts 
to  our  lips,  and  Hopkins  raising  his  hands  in  mock 
homage  and  gratitude,  exclaimed: 

"But  this  day  of  water,  cleanliness,  and  soap, 
I  shall  carry  to  the  Catacombs  of  Hope, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  259 

Photographically  lined 
On  the  tablets  of  my  mind, 
When  a  yesterday  seems  to  me  remote." 

And  to  crown  all  we  were  given  the  tunic  and 
trousers  of  Radiumopolis  with  the  belt  and  enigma- 
tically engraved  buckle — of  lead,  to  Goritz's 
ill-suppressed  mortification.  And  then  we  were 
taken  back  into  the  Capitol,  and  alloted  four  rooms 
facing  the  east,  each  provided  with  a  window,  from 
which  we  would  now  surely  be  able  to  watch  the 
pageant  of  the  returning  worshippers,  priests  or 
celebrants.  These  rooms  deserve  a  passing  con- 
sideration. They  were  low  ceilinged,  moderate 
spaced,  their  floors  carpeted  with  a  rude  figured 
matting  (again  the  conventional  Crocodilo-Python) 
their  walls  hung  with  rugs  far  less  artistic  than  the 
Navajo  blanket,  low  couches  upholstered  with 
matting  and  rugs  or  carpets,  and  across  the  door- 
way a  surprisingly  artistic  tapestry  of  gold  threads, 
figuring  the  Crocodilo-Python  in  a  maze  of  inter- 
lacing and  sinuous  outlines,  something  like  the 
convoluted  sea  dragon  on  the  jade  screens  of  China. 
One  of  these  curtains  hung  at  the  entrance  of  almost 
every  room  in  the  Capitol,  and  they  were  very 
numerous  and  capable  of  accommodating  a  re- 
markable number  of  people. 

There  were  on  the  ground  floor — where  our  own 
rooms  had  auspiciously  been  reserved — large  assem- 
bly rooms,  or  audience  and  council  chambers,  and, 
as  the  sequel  shows,  one  of  these  was  the  Throne 
Room.  There  was  no  glass  covering  to  the  win- 
dows; perhaps  in  a  few  instance  screens  of  leather, 
which  were  inserted  in  the  openings  of  the  rooms, 
helped  to  exclude  the  cold,  such  as  it  was.  Rain 
was  kept  out  by  board  frames.  We  found  out  that 
there  was  seldom  a  cold  exceeding  0°  Centigrade, 
and  that  radium  stoves  or  our  clothing  itself, 
mitigated  any  severity  of  weather  the  denizens  of 


260  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

these  houses  experienced.  Everything  reinforced 
our  first  impressions,  that  the  culture  of  the 
RadiumopoHtes  was  simple,  unostentatious,  a  little 
grotesque  and  savage,  but  that  their  proximity  to 
some  source  of  radium  had  evolved  a  mysterious 
power  among  their  wise  men,  which  had  overlaid 
the  supellex  of  their  culture  with  this  resplendent 
glory  of  GOLD.  Was  it,  as  the  Professor  more 
and  more  confidently  believed — was  it  trans- 
mutation ? 

In  our  rooms  we  were  supplied  with  the  radium 
lamps  and  were  made  to  understand  that  too  long 
exposure  to  their  influence  was  dangerous.  Once 
in  possession  of  this  marvel  we  surrendered  almost 
all  curiosity  to  the  inspection  of  the  transcendent 
material.  Facts  connected  with  its  properties  and 
its  power  are  considered  in  another  place;  our 
immediate  history  in  our  new  surroundings  claims 
precedence  now.  We  were  permitted  the  liberty 
of  the  courtyard  around  the  Capitol,  but  were  not 
allowed  to  descend  the  hill,  nor  to  investigate  the 
surrounding  city.  Of  course  we  saw  the  occupants 
of  the  Capitol,  who  evidently  formed  a  restricted 
and  semi-imperial  class,  and  the  many  messengers, 
tradespeople  or  supplicants  who  every  day  came  out 
of  the  city. 

The  small  people  were  immensely  the  more 
interesting  of  the  two  types.  They  varied  much 
among  themselves,  and  exhibited  individualities  of 
temperament,  behavior  and  feature,  that  were 
most  absorbing.  One  defect  amongst  them 
was  the  imperfect  and  incomplete  teeth,  espe- 
cially in  the  men,  the  apparently  thin-shanked 
(platynemic)  legs,  and  the  somewhat  constricted 
chests,  indications,  taken  in  connection  with  their 
large  heads,  that  the  Professor  interpreted  as  evi- 
dence of  great  racial  age.  The  women  were  often 
sharply   contrasted   with    the   men,   being   larger, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  261 

more  shapely,  and  often  boasting  really  extraordi- 
nary beauty.  This  was  most  marked  in  the  residents 
in  the  Capitol,  and  one  of  these  ladies  of  the  Capitol 
whom  we  later  encountered  promenading  the  court- 
yard quite  enthralled  us.  Her  own  appreciation  of 
the  Yankee  was  on  her  side  equally  enthusiastic. 

We  had  our  meals  served  to  us  a  in  a  separate 
room,  attended  by  servants  of  the  larger  race.  We 
sat  at  a  table  covered  with  a  yellow  cloth,  with 
designs  woven  upon  it  of  the  ubiquitous  Crocodilo- 
Python,  and  we  ate  from  square  dishes  of  pottery, 
also  yellow  and  bordered  by  blue  traceries  of  inter- 
woven serpents,  which  revolted  both  Hopkins  and 
myself.  Our  cuisine  was  not  much  varied,  and  the 
most  pleasing  element  was  the  delicious  wine. 
The  flat  meal  cakes,  nuts,  fruit  and  dishes  of  goat 
and  sheep  meat,  with  some  vegetables,  were  offered 
relentlessly  day  after  day,  and  it  occurred  to  Hop- 
kins that  if  he  could  have  had  an  assorted  shipment 
from  Park  and  Tilford's,  and  been  allowed  to  make 
a  few  simple  experiments  in  the  kitchen  he  could 
easily  have  raised  the  standard  of  living  immensely. 

But  I  was  making  remarkable  progress  in  ac- 
quiring the  tongue  of  the  upper  classes.  My 
excellent  knowledge  of  Hebrew  made  this  practic- 
able, and  in  a  short  time,  before  the  return  of  the 
Councilors,  Priests  or  Governors  from  their  peripa- 
tetic religious  pilgrimage  made  it  supremely  helpful, 
I  could  actually  converse  intelligibly,  and  from 
carefully  enunciated  addresses  understand  my 
interlocutor.  I  was  most  lucky  in  hitting  on  a 
very  sympathetic  teacher.  It  was  no  less  a  one 
than  Ziliah,  the  daughter  of  Javan,  the  president  of 
the  Council  and  Ruler  of  the  Capitol.  He  was  the 
benignant  and  expostulating  little  gentleman  we 
had  encountered  when  our  mishap  precipitated  us 
from  the  pine  tree  top.  She,  his  daughter,  was 
certainly  the  fairest  of  the  children  of   Radium- 


262  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

opolis.and  her  wandering  and  liquid  eyes  had  never 
been  more  satisfied  than  they  were  now  with  the 
sweet  boyish  beauty  of  Spruce  Hopkins,  the 
Yankee. 

Ziiiah  Lamech — if  I  may  adopt  the  Gentile 
practices  of  nomenclature — was  one  of  the  larger 
women,  and  exhibited  a  different  and  piquant  skill 
in  dress.  Her  trousers  were  rather  baggy,  her  skirts 
looped  on  the  sides,  so  that  her  pretty  feet  in  em- 
broidered goatskin  sandals  were  delightfully  visible. 
The  belt  of  gold  plates  and  the  wonderful  buckle  of 
gold  clasped  her  waist,  constricting  the  blowsy  upper 
tunic,  which  was  a  delicate  blue,  and  enriched 
by  interwoven  threads  of  gold.  It  was  loosened  at 
her  neck  and  the  dark,  smooth  skin  bared  at  her  finely 
shaped  neck,  was  decorated  by  a  series  of  delicate 
gold  chains  in  a  composite  flat  necklace.  Her 
abundant  hair,  as  with  the  women  we  had  met  in 
the  pine  forest,  was  made  up  in  compact  rolls,  that 
were  held  in  place  by  the  gold  serpent  pins,  and 
from  her  small  ears  hung  tiny  bells  of  gold. 

Her  face,  as  I  carefully  studied  it,  was  distinctly 
Jewish.  The  features  were  really  perfect,  and  the 
mingled  softness  and  intelligence  of  her  expression, 
the  half  denoted  charm  of  extreme  sensibility  in  her 
eyes,  the  mobility  and  loveliness  of  her  mouth,  a 
swaying  grace  in  her  motions,  an  indefinable  dis- 
tinction too  in  the  carriage  of  her  head,  and  the 
enticing  fullness  of  her  bared  arms — the  sleeves  of 
her  upper  garment  were  caught  up  to  her  shoulders 
by  broad  loops  of  ornamented  gold — combined  to 
make  of  her  a  captivating  and  most  novel  picture. 
She  it  was,  whose  heart  the  errant  little  god  Cupid 
had  now  sadly  transfixed  with  his  stinging  arrows, 
and  her  heart  was  beating  wildly  under  the  loosened 
folds  of  her  jacket  with  love  for  the  blond  American. 

It  was  my  opportunity.  Love  is  a  quick  teacher, 
and  makes  quick  confidences,  especially  with  naive 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  263 

and  unsophisticated  natures,  as  now,  in  this  little 
princess  of  the  north.  She  met  us  frequently  in 
the  courtyard  surrounding  the  huge  glittering 
Capitol  where  we  were  constantly  strolling,  and  I 
recall  the  extraordinary  picture  she  made,  when 
one  of  the  black  lustrous  snakes  rose  from  the  para- 
pet on  the  edge  of  the  hill  as  she  was  passing.  She 
bowed  to  us,  seized  the  reptile,  wound  it  around  her 
body,  and  lifted,  above  her  own,  its  big  wedge- 
shaped  head,  with  one  hand,  holding  with  the 
other  its  scaly  loops  at  her  waist.  The  effort 
brought  color  to  her  cheeks,  excitement  to  her  eyes, 
and  though  neither  Hopkins  nor  myself  admired 
the  combination,  her  beauty  won  from  the  fantastic, 
or  repellent,  contrast  a  most  singular  thrall. 

There  was  a  maidenly  coquetry  with  her,  as 
became  her  degree,  for  she  retired  after  disengaging 
the  creature,  throwing  it  back  down  the  hillside, 
whence  it  sped  to  the  immense  preserve  below  re- 
served for  these  unpleasing  guests.  The  ophidian 
impress  everywhere  was  to  me  almost  unbearable. 
These  snakes  traveled  from  their  enclosures,  more 
or  less  frequently,  in  all  directions ;  they  were  nu- 
merous in  the  city,  though,  and,  after  their  secretive 
habits,  were  discovered  most  unalluringly  in  corners, 
eaves,  holes,  roofs,  hanging  from  trees,  or  nestled 
on  clothes.  In  the  Capitol  or  Palace  they  were 
not  so  common,  and  probably  were  never  found 
above  the  first  floor. 

Hopkins  of  course  realized  his  conquest,  but 
Hopkins  decidedly  abhorred  snakes.  When  the 
beautiful  Ziliah  vanished,  he  said  with  a  most 
comical  grimace: 

"A  married  life  with  a  snake  lady  wouldn't  be 
much  better  than  a  lifelong  companionship  with  a 
gin  mill,"  an  ungallant  commentary  which  I 
denounced. 

Ziliah  and  I  loitered  long  together  until  under  her 


264  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

adroit  tutelage  I  became  almost  proficient  in  this 
unquestionably  deteriorated  Hebrew  tongue.  And 
then,  when  we  fairly  understood  each  other — how 
the  questions  flew!  She  exulted  in  telling  me  all  she 
knew  about  her  people,  and  the  exchange  on  my 
part,  in  telling  her  of  our  origin  and  home,  with 
welcome  dilations  on  the  talent  and  prowess  of  the 
adorable  Spruce,  only  too  well  repaid  her  efiforts. 
I  told  all  these  things  to  my  friends,  and  for  long 
hours  we  would  discuss  and  rehearse  them  with 
increasing  amazement.  In  conjunction  with  all 
that  I  learned  later,  the  picture  to  be  presented  of 
Radiumopolis,  the  Radiumopolites,  and  their 
country— KROCKER  LAND— is  mainly  as  follows : 
The  Valley  of  Rasselas  lies  to  the  southwest  of 
the  Krocker  Land  terrain,  and  the  city  of  Radium- 
opolis to  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  valley 
itself.  They  are  excentrically  related  to  the  vast 
domain  of  encircling  mountains,  and  to  the  stupen- 
dous gorge  of  the  Perpetual  Nimbus,  which  seems 
throughout  its  extent  to  penetrate  to  uncooled  or 
igneous  wombs  of  the  earth.  But  at  one  point 
westward  there  is  a  superimposed  gorge  that  ac- 
tually cuts  the  first  encircling  monstrous  crack,  and 
through  this  secondary  gorge,  cutting  the  first  to 
immense  depths,  pours  the  deluge  of  the  waters  of 
the  river  that  empties  the  Saurian  Sea  into  the 
Canon  of  Promise.  (See  Chapter  VL)  This 
great  river  enters  the  Valley  of  Rasselas  towards  the 
northwest,  and  after  a  short,  peaceful  transit,  as  a 
brimming  flood  through  wide  savannahs,  it  turns 
abruptly  westward  in  an  entrenched  conduit  and 
resumes  its  terrible  course  through  the  canon  I 
named  the  Canon  of  Escape.  Through  this  awful 
defile  and  on  the  surging  flood  of  that  river  I  made 
my  own  exit  from  Krocker  Land,  reached  Beaufort 
Sea,  Behring  Straits,  and  finally  San  Francisco. 
Goritz's  appelation  for  the  gorge  beyond  the  Sau- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  265 

rian  Sea  is,  however,  justified  because  of  the  river's 
final,  though  brief,  passage  across  one  extremity  of 
the  bUssful  Valley  of  Rasselas. 

Immediately  southward,  west  of  Radiumopolis, 
are  hot  springs,  a  sort  of  geyser  basin,  whence  hot 
waters  are  constantly  derived  for  the  baths  of  the 
city — ^and  we  found  the  latter  to  be  numerous. 
Beyond  these  again,  in  the  same  direction,  the  con- 
tinental rift  of  the  Perpetual  Nimbus  almost  closes, 
and  the  horrible  crack  becomes  a  crevice  easily 
crossed.  But  beyond  it  again,  in  a  crustal  split 
that  defies  computation  to  measure,  or  science  to 
explain,  or  experience  to  equal,  lies,  probably  a 
radium  (?)  mass  fifty  or  more  miles  in  linear  extent, 
with  a  width  of  three  or  four  miles,  and  from  which 
constantly  pours  an  almost  cosmic  immensity  of 
heat  and  light — emanation-niton.  Its  environs 
are  withered,  blasted  deserts  of  rock.  No  one  has 
ever  approached  it.  Its  emanation  strikes  a  bare 
mountain  face  beyond  it — a  part  of  the  Krocker 
Land  Rim — and  the  incalculable  volume  of  rays 
(Cathode  Rays)  reflected  into  the  upper  atmos- 
phere over  Krocker  Land  and  immediately  superior 
to  the  Valley  of  Rasselas,  are  somehow  arrested  in 
a  nebulous  ganglion  which  forms  the  Stationary 
Sun  of  this  utterly  fabulous  region.  This  sun  is 
really  not  stationary,  nor  is  it  in  any  sense  equable, 
as  hints  in  my  narrative  have  already  indicated. 
It  moves,  drifts  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
undergoes  perturbations,  dies  out,  flares  up,  and 
would,  to  a  properly  equipped  meteorological  corps, 
stationed  at  Radiumopolis,  furnish,  I  believe,  an 
object  of  study  absolutely  unrivaled  in  terrestrial 
science. 

But  from  time  immemorial  in  the  radium  land 
fragments,  nodules  of  a  grayish  or  brownish 
mineral,  were  picked  up  and  their  nuclei  were  later 
revealed  to  be  pure  radium  (they  called  it  Luxto), 


266  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

and  from  these  by  an  accident — still  retained  in  the 
tradition  of  the  people  as  a  heavenly  bestowed 
revelation  or  miracle — the  power  of  transmutation 
was  learned. 

Mr.  Link,  we  had  already  suspected  this,  as  you 
know,  but  when  I  actually  learned  it  from  the  lips 
of  Ziliah — the  love-dazed  Ziliah — I  verily  doubted 
my  existence  for  a  moment.  In  connection  with 
the  whole  complex,  so  to  speak,  of  wonders,  it 
produced  a  half  vertiginous  feeling  hard  to  describe. 
Ziliah's  story  was  in  this  wise: 

"A  long,  long,  long,  time  ago,  after  a  long  dark- 
ness in  the  Stationary  Sun,  a  terrible  storm  broke 
over  Radiumopolis.  The  thunder,  the  lightning 
flashes,  had  never  before  been  heard  or  seen,  and 
there  roared  through  the  air  an  awful,  destructive 
wind.  It  upset  houses,  blew  over  part  of  the 
Capitol,  razed  the  trees;  and  then  amid  the 
thunder  and  the  lightning,  in  a  downrush  of  air, 
came  a  stranger,  a  little  man  strangely  dressed  in 
white  with  a  black  cap,  and  he  had  a  dark  face. 
He  stayed  with  the  people  and  taught  them  many 
things,  but  only  to  the  rulers,  the  older  men,  the 
men  of  the  council,  would  he  teach  the  secret  of 
making  gold.  He  took  them  away  with  him  on  a 
journey  westward  to  the  radium  country.  They 
were  absent  many  days  and  when  they  returned 
they  were  in  rags,  and  their  faces  were  pale,  and 
haggard,  but  their  hands  and  their  pockets  were 
filled  with  lumps  of  gold.  The  little  stranger  left 
as  he  had  come  in  another  awful  storm.  He  went 
upward  in  a  whirlwind  and  rode  like  a  ghost 
through  fearful  gusts  and  disappeared  in  a  roar 
of  thunder  and  blaze  of  light,  and  a  circle  of 
flame  descended  from  his  feet  and  burnt  a  deep 
hole  in  the  ground,  as  anyone  can  see  to  this 
day,  below  the  hill  in  the  snake  pasture.  But 
that  wasn't  ail.     He  carried  away  with  him  the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  267 

beautiful  daughter  of  the  Head  Man  and  she  never 
was  seen  again." 

"Why,"  exclaimed  Hopkins,  when  I  repeated  the 
legend,  "it's  a  clear  case  again  of  Alice  Hatton  and 
the  Devil,  though  in  that  case  Old  Nick  left  nothing 
behind  him  but  a  bad  smell : 

"Now  high,  now  low,  now  fast  and  now  slow, 

In  terrible  circumgyration  they  go — 

The  flame  colored  belle  and  her  coffee  faced  beau! 

Up  they  go  once  and  up  they  go  twice! 

Round  the  hall!      Round  the  hall!      And  now 

up  they  go  thrice. 
Now  one  grand  pirouette  the  performance  to 

crown, 
Now  again  they  go  up,  and  they  NEVER  COME 

DOWN!" 

Whatever  the  legend  meant  it  intimated  that 
someone  had  discovered  this  peculiar  power  in  the 
radium  mineral,  and  the  knowledge  had  been  care- 
fully guarded,  though,  as  Goritz  said,  "Of  what  use 
was  the  knowledge  when  gold  was  needed  by  no 
one?" 

But  the  power  itself,  its  physical  or  chemical 
postulates,  the  method,  the  material!  Later  we 
learned  something,  but  not  much,  and  I  trust  it 
may  be  reserved  for  Science,  with  the  material 
at  my  command  (which  exerts  this  miraculous 
power)  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  ages. 

Ziliah  told  me  something  of  the  origins  of  her 
people  and  this  curious  civilization  of  theirs,  but 
it  was  vague  and  inconclusive.  The  small  people 
were  an  intensive  people,  whose  unresisted  control 
of  a  physically  stronger  and  bolder  race  resembles 
some  of  the  ethnic  phenomena  of  Asia  and  Africa. 
Their  literature  was  practically  little  else  than  long 
geneologies,  the  traditions  transmitted  by  word  of 
mouth  of  former  rulers,  councils,  the  doings  of  a 


268  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

few  notables,  and  a  cosmology  which  very  singu- 
larly resembled  the  story  recently  deciphered  on  a 
Sumerian  relic  by  Professor  Arno  Poebel  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  fact  these  Radiumopolites  had  lived  unevent- 
ful lives  and  the  incidents  of  history  were  con- 
trolled exclusively  by  the  incidents  of  weather,  the 
atmospheric  and  terrestrial  perturbations  involved 
in  their  unique  environment.  When  had  they 
reached  this  extraordinary  polar  depression?  Were 
they  autochthonous?  Was  it  not  more  likely  that 
the  Eskimo  people  had  assimilated  with  them,  and 
had  been  absorbed  rather  than,  as  in  Ziliah's 
account,  the  reverse?  These  were  unanswered 
questions.  To  propose  them  only  covered  Ziliah's 
face  with  the  shroud  of  an  unhappy  perplexity. 

Their  social  economic  life  was  very  simple.  As 
far  as  Ziliah  could  tell  me  they  had  always  been 
governed  by  a  patrician  class,  constituted  of  two 
orders,  one  the  Eminences  of  the  Capitol,  to  which 
Javan,  Ziliah's  father,  belonged,  and  who  numbered 
some  twenty-four,  presided  over  by  a  President, 
and  all  of  whose  families,  retainers,  etc.,  were  for 
the  most  part  domiciled  in  the  great  Capitol 
building;  and  the  Magistrates  of  the  city,  who 
ruled  over  wards  or  bailiwicks,  living  in  superior 
structures,  whose  roofs  were  also  distinguished  by 
gold  plates,  and  which  throughout  the  city  blazed 
picturesquely  among  the  lowlier  red  buildings. 

The  religion  in  primitive  communities,  always  a 
controlling  and  oftentimes  the  most  distinctive 
feature  of  their  culture,  was  in  the  Krocker  Land 
people  a  monotheistic  faith  which,  however,  secured 
the  satisfaction  of  visualization  in  a  deeply  rooted 
and  superstitious  Tree  and  Serpent  worship.  Yet 
THERE  WERE  NO  PRIESTS.  And  this 
anomalous  condition  was  explained  partially  by 
Ziliah,  who  told  me  that  it  had  years  before  been 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  269 

instituted  as  a  Law  of  the  People  that  only  a  King 
could  be  their  Priest.  Whether  they  had  ever  had 
Kings  she  did  not  know  but  there  was  some 
prophecy  made  by  one  of  the  wise  old  men  of  the 
Council,  a  hundred  or  more  years  ago  that  a  King 
would  fall  out  of  the  clouds  to  them,  that  he  would 
look  like  a  poor  man,  that  he  would  not  know  their 
language,  that  he  would  bring  them  a  new  wisdom. 
It  was  some  time  before  I  could  make  out  the 
meaning  of  this.  It  dawned  on  me  at  last.  Its 
full  meaning  received  a  startling  explanation  later. 
The  services  of  the  religion  were  controlled  by  the 
Council  (the  Areopagus,  as  the  Professor  styled  it) 
of  little  Wise  Men,  and  one  prominent  feature  was 
this  periodic  peregrination  through  the  great  Pine 
Forest  when  the  selected  shrines  were  visited,  the 
votive  tablets  nailed  to  the  sacred  trees,  and  the 
black  snakes  left  to  protect  them.  When  I  told 
Hopkins  about  all  this  he  shook  his  head  gloomily; 

"Yes,  and  how  about  Goritz's  loot?  I  guess  the 
God  of  Krocker  Land  won't  stand  for  that. 
Erickson  we'll  get  it  in  the  neck  yet.  The  Pro- 
fessor is  our  trump  card." 

"Oh,  yes,"  I  replied.  "How  about  yourself? 
The  fair  Ziliah  pulls  well  with  her  father,  I  guess, 
and  you  ptdl  well  with  her!" 

Hopkins  gave  me  a  derisive  glance.  "Oh  of 
course.  We'll  do  the  Captain  Reece  stunt — you 
remember? 

"The  captain  saw  the  dame  that  day 
Addressed  her  in  his  playful  way — 
'And  did  it  want  a  wedding  ring? 
It  was  a  tempting  ickle  sing! 

"  'Well,  well  the  chaplain  I  will  seek. 
We'll  all  be  married  this  day  week, 
At  yonder  church  upon  the  hill; 
It  is  my  duty,  and  I  will!' 


270  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"The  sisters,  cousins,  aunts  and  shape 
Of  every  black  enlivening  snake 
Attended  there  as  they  were  bid ; 
It  was  their  duty  and  they  did." 

Of  course  in  exchange  for  all  these  confidences,  if 
they  could  be  called  that,  Ziliah  exacted  some  con- 
fidences in  return,  and  I  confess  I  had  to  resort 
somewhat  to  invention,  where  I  did  not  have 
Hopkins'  precise  directions  in  the  matter,  in  meet- 
ing her  exorbitant  curiosity  over  everything  con- 
cerning America.  This  disquisitional  curiosity 
was  singular  in  an  unsophisticated  maiden  of  a  semi- 
civilized  people  who,  it  might  have  been  supposed, 
would  have  contented  herself  with  the  indulgence 
of  her  affections  and  felt  no  interest  in  her  hero's 
history. 

But  so  it  was.  Spruce  Hopkins  understood  her 
admiration,  but  was  extremely  puzzled,  certainly 
at  first,  as  to  his  own  legitimate  behavior  in  the 
affair. 


CHAPTER  XI 
The  Crater  of  Everlasting  Light 

The  return  of  the  Ophidian  Pilgrims,  as  the 
Professor  termed  them,  seemed  unreasonably  slow. 
The  wardens,  Ziliah,  and  the  servants  of  the  Capi- 
tol were  all  equally  mystified  over  this  unusual 
slowness.  Cold,  dry  weather  supervened,  for  indeed 
the  stationary  sun  seemed  sensibly  to  respond 
to  the  secular  influences  of  the  seasons,  as  we  know 
them.  We  had  all  been  too  sufificingly  engaged  in 
studying  our  new  surroundings,  to  regret  or  miss 
the  absent  Government,  for  a  larger  liberty  had 
been  vouchsafed  us,  though  one  thing  was  forbid- 
den. We  could  not  enter  the  precincts  of  the 
forest  to  the  west  of  the  Capitol. 

We  walked  through  the  city,  we  explored  the 
Capitol,  we  increased  our  acquaintance  with  the 
domestic  habits  of  the  populace,  and  the  Professor 
and  myself  had  accumulated  notes  on  all  of  these 
things,  to  be  incorporated  in  the  work  on  Krocker 
Land  which  we  fervently  hoped  to  write,  and  which 
now — Alas! — may  never  see  the  light,  for — the 
Professor  is  today  a  fixed  official  fact  in  that  almost 
mythical  land  in  the  Arctic  Sea.     But  I  hasten. 

Goritz  had  restrained  with  difificulty  his  almost 
uncontrollable  impulse  to  perpetrate  some  outrage 
on  the  Capitol  itself  in  his  determination  to  ac- 
cumulate a  fortune  of  gold.  We  had  averted  this 
danger  by  very  emphatic  protests.     We  pointed 

271 


272  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

out  to  him  its  danger  and  the  folly  of  jeopardizing 
our  safety  when  the  means  of  getting  back — I  had 
almost  said  to  the  Earth,  as  if  we  had  actually  left 
it — were  now  almost  null,  or  were  at  least  desperate. 
We  told  him  that  the  plunder  in  his  room,  if 
found — and  I  began  to  fear  that  the  depredations 
on  the  tree  shrines  had  already  been  detected  and 
were,  in  some  way,  a  cause  for  the  delayed  return 
of  the  pilgrims — would  involve  us  all  in  grave 
difficulties.  To  our  entreaties  or  threats  he  became 
deaf  or  obstinate,  and  I  had  followed  him,  in  the 
sleeping  hours,  when  he  expected  to  achieve  his 
robberies  without  molestation,  only  to  intercept 
him  chiseling  at  the  gold  plates  that  encrusted  the 
Capitol. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Professor,  whose  popularity 
increased  with  everyone,  had  become  attracted  to  a 
young  Eskimo  whose  first  astonishment  over  the 
Professor's  poll  of  red  hair  had  been  succeeded  by  a 
sort  of  personal  adoration.  He  followed  the  Pro- 
fessor with  an  attachment  and  fascination  that 
might  have  proved  irksome.  I  made  some  in- 
quiries of  my  informant,  the  acquiescent  Ziliah, 
about  him,  and  learned  from  her  that  he  was  a  guide 
and  the  gatherer  of  radium.  He  alone  apparently 
was  able  to  penetrate  the  strange  and  ghastly 
country  where  the  radium  masses  were  collected,  in 
that  zone  of  the  Unreal  where  lay  the  CRATER  OF 
EVERLASTING  LIGHT.  His  peculiar  ability 
arose  from  his  immunity  to  the  influence  of  the 
radium  itself,  which  invariably  prostrated  those  who 
touched  it,  while  the  region  itself  forbade  approach, 
by  reason  of  those  indeterminable  emanations 
which  destroyed  the  adventurers  who  entered  it. 
For  some  reason,  or,  in  some  way,  Oogalah  Ikimya, 
the  young  Eskimo,  enjoyed  a  unique  invulnera- 
bility, and  on  his  efforts  Radiumopolis  depended  for 
its  supply  of  radium.     This  distinction  had  given 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  273 

him  a  particular  arrogance.  He  alone  now  dared 
the  inexplicable  dangers,  or  even  knew  the  devious 
route  that  threaded  the  labyrinths  leading  to  this 
unutterable  place. 

When  I  told  my  friends  about  this,  we  all  felt  a 
mad  desire  to  see,  even  at  a  distance,  this  intoler- 
able land,  a  mineral  Gehenna.  I  knew  of  the  man's 
devotion  to  the  Professor,  and  I  felt  certain  we 
could  gain  his  consent  for  us  to  accompany  him. 
No  one  of  us  felt  a  keener  impatience  for  the  trip 
than  Antoine  Goritz.  I  told  Ziliah  of  our  wish. 
She  grew  pale  with  horror  at  the  suggestion;  her 
beautiful  eyes  pleaded  with  me  to  abandon  the 
suicidal  project;  she  pointed  to  Spruce  Hopkins  in 
piteous  despair,  she  indeed  flung  herself  at  his  feet, 
and  invoked  his  commiseration  of  her  should  he  be 
lost.  Then  she  became  tempestuous  with  scorn 
and  indignation. 

We  could  not  go.  The  guards  would  prevent  us. 
She  would  summon  the  magistrates  of  the  city. 
Was  she  not  Ziliah,  daughter  of  the  President, 
head  man  of  the  Council?  We  should  not  stir. 
NOT  HE. 

And  that  feminine  transport  over,  she  again 
importuned  us,  with  terrible  threats  of  our  fate, 
not  to  consider  it;  so  many  had  perished  in  the 
same  outrageous  pursuit;  dead  bodies  marked  the 
way;  it  was  forbidden;  the  curse  of  the  Crocodilo- 
Python  followed  those  who  went  there;  it  meant 
madness,  hysteria,  death. 

Finally  it  was  made  clear  to  us  that  whatever 
Oogalah  Ikimya  might  say  this  influential  and 
enamored  young  woman  would  prove  hopelessly 
obstinate.  Physical  force  would  be  invoked  to 
restrain  us.  Oogalah  himself  rather  welcomed  this 
opportunity  to  show  off  his  skill,  his  exceptional 
prowess,  but  his  volubility  and  transports  availed 
nothing.     Hopkins    executed    what    the    French 


274  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

might  call  a  coup  d'amour  and  liberated  us. 
His  overture  to  the  despairing  or  incensed  Ziliah 
through  me  was  rather  compromising  and  risky, 
but  its  effect  was  instantaneous  and  certain.  Op- 
position vanished  when  Hopkins  explained  that 
the  lovely  woman  might  get  herself  disliked,  and 
that  any  conceivable  state  of  future  happiness 
for  both  of  them  depended  on  his  having  his  way. 

So  it  eventually  ended,  as  the  mountainous 
objections  seemed  to  melt  away  like  dew  before 
the  sun,  that  we  found  ourselves  on  the  road  that 
led  westward  from  Radiumopolis,  under  the  gui- 
dance of  Oogalah  Ikimya,  who  strode  before  us  with 
rapid  swinging  of  legs  and  arms,  his  face  radiant 
with  pride.  We  had  cautiously  promised  to  be 
careful,  not  to  go  farther  than  was  prudent,  to 
satisfy  ourselves  with  a  distant  view  of  the  blasted 
land,  and  to  return  as  quickly  as  we  went,  for  it  was 
insisted  that  we  should  hold  ourselves  ready  for  the 
disposition  of  the  Council,  when  the  long  delayed 
pilgrims  returned,  to  settle  our  fate. 

The  noisy  rumor  of  our  departure  for  the 
Radium  Country,  and  the  haggling  and  delays  that 
preceded  it,  Ziliah's  outbursts  and  excitement,  the 
consultations  over  the  permission  to  let  us  go  at  all, 
Oogalah's  gossiping  activity  about  it,  led  to  the 
population's — which  besieged  us  and  surrounded  us 
almost  daily — outpouring  on  the  day  of  our  depar- 
ture, so  that  for  miles  we  were  accompanied  by  a 
crowd  watching  us  with  increased  wonder,  and, 
among  the  older,  with  much  ominous  head  shaking, 
and,  with  the  younger,  many  sneering  comments,  a 
little  cheering  and  some  obstreperous  farewells. 
The  Professor  evoked  much  enthusiasm — he  always 
did.  I  do  not  know  the  rationale  or  the  etiquette 
of  love  matters  in  Krocker  Land,  but  I  remember 
that  Hopkins  took  the  profusely  smiling  and  opu- 
lently lovely,  young  and  small  Ziliah  aside,  and 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  275 

tried  to  make  her  understand — without  my  help — 
that  their  pubUc  parting  should  be  very  formal,  no 
matter  how  ecstatic  their  private  one  might  be. 
On  top  of  that,  considerably  to  his  disappointment 
or  chagrin  perhaps,  Ziliah  hugged  him  pretty 
tightly  when  they  stood  on  the  terrace  stairs  as  we 
left  the  palace,  and  the  very  observing  public 
gathered  about  were  neither  amused  nor  interested. 

It  was  rather  funny  I  thought,  but  I  admitted,  I 
am  sure,  that  as  a  display  of  superb  manners  it 
would  be  unmatched  anywhere  else  in  the  world  of 
so-called  culture  today.  Atala  came  into  my  mind, 
though  Spruce  Hopkins  was  a  good  deal  of  a  con- 
trast to  the  sentimental  Rene,  and  there  was  a 
certain  aplomb,  directness,  vivacity  and  insis- 
tence in  Ziliah  that  hardly  suggested  the  Natchez 
maiden.     And  there  certainly  was  no  Outogamiz. 

Well,  at  length  we  were  on  our  journey.  At 
first  the  highway,  for,  though  seldom  used,  this 
western  road  was  in  a  state  of  fine  preservation, 
traversed  a  thick  but  low  wood  entangled  with 
undergrowth.  We  had  never  entered  this  wood 
before  and  had  been  especially  prohibited  from 
entering  it.  Of  course  we  tried  to  see  all  we  could, 
but  there  was  absolutely  nothing  remarkable  about 
it.  The  land  to  the  left  sloped  off  into  a  marshy 
tract.  The  people  were  numerous  also  at  this 
point,  which  interfered  wnth  our  inspection,  and  I 
know  now  that  Oogalah,  obedient  to  instructions, 
hurried  us  along  this  section  of  the  route — he  first, 
the  Professor  second,  then  Goritz,  then  myself, 
then  Hopkins — until  we  reached  a  spare,  meagre 
country,  beyond  which  rose  the  western  ranges  of 
the  Pine  Tree  Gredin. 

The  land  rose  steeply,  but  it  was  almost  bare,  the 
parched  soil  supported  a  ragged  growth,  and  in  this 
appeared  a  few  stunted  pine  trees.  Apparently, 
for  many  miles  north  and  south,   this  condition 


276  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

prevailed,  an  unhappy  and  strong  contrast  to  the 
pine  tree  zone  to  the  east  of  the  amphitheater, 
where  the  land  bubbled  with  springs,  was  murmur- 
ous with  brooks,  and  where  the  lofty,  splendid 
trees  spread  a  temple-like  shade  over  the  vast 
decline. 

Beyond  us  already  rose  the  faint  shimmer  of  the 
Perpetual  Nimbus,  that  wall-like  screen  of  vapor 
that  enclosed  Krocker  Land  within  the  moun- 
tainous Rim  that  lies  outside  of  this  veil  of  cloud, 
though  here,  as  I  have  already  noted,  the  Nimbus 
was  wavering,  inconstant,  and  in  patches  of  the  dis- 
tance absent.  The  Deer  Eels  country  and  the 
aquatic  and  marshy  plateaux  were  from  here  scarcely 
distinguishable.  A  level  tract  of  stony  wastes  was 
this,  varied  by  occasional  rugged  hills,  depressions 
that  glistened  balefully,  dead  ravines  barely  sup- 
porting the  niggardly  growth  of  sapless  yellow 
plants  that  lurked  here  and  there  below  boulders,  or 
sought  the  moisture  of  a  few  sullen  pools  whose 
replenishment  depended  upon  the  infrequent  but, 
we  were  told,  furious  storms. 

And  the  Nimbus — a  paltry  reproduction  of  the 
incalculable  vaporous  discharges  that  encircle  at 
every  other  point  this  hidden  paradise.  The 
chasm  here  was  indeed  deep,  but  imperfectly  con- 
tinuous, and  huge  horsebacks  of  stone  piled  within 
it  formed  practicable  though  most  broken  and  un- 
even bridges  across  it.  The  steam  rising  from  the 
heated  rocks  below  was  not  visibly  referable  to  any 
water  supply,  as  on  the  east,  where  the  plunging 
rivers  so  abundantly  furnished  the  means  of 
raising  this  colossal  stage  curtain,  and  there  was 
absent  from  here  that  tumultuous  rolling  ocean  of 
clouds  in  the  sky.  Probably  underground  courses 
supplied  the  water,  for,  after  we  had  surmounted 
one  of  the  least  precipitous  and  angular  of  the 
bridges  and  had  gotten  into  the  rising  territory 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  277 

beyond,  we  encountered  a  puzzling  intricacy  of 
profound  cracks  or  fissures,  and  we  could  not  only 
hear  but  could  see  the  patchy  lustres  of  running 
water  in  them. 

From  this  point  our  guide  turned  abruptly 
northward,  taking  us  through  a  terrible  desolation 
of  rocks,  with  the  high  snow-clad  peaks  of  the 
Krocker  Land  Rim  gloriously  looming  skyward  on 
the  left.  I  shall  not  forget  that  strange  transit. 
It  was  hard  work.  We  carried  our  own  supplies, 
the  water  and  a  few  instruments,  and  their  weight 
was  almost  insupportably  increased  by  the  dis- 
comforts of  the  harsh,  inhospitable  land  we  traveled 
through,  and,  by  some  dizzying  influence  which 
began  to  strain  our  heads  with  headaches,  to  parch 
our  throats,  and  to  produce  a  most  uncomfortable 
and  absurd  illusion  of  treading  on  air  cushions, 
This  last  hallucination  made  us  unsteady,  and  after 
a  while  it  pestered  us  so  much  that  we  were  com- 
pelled to  stop  at  short  intervals  to  rest. 

Oogalah  kept  on  well  ahead,  looking  back  at  us 
every  few  minutes  and  distrustfully  shaking  his 
head,  with  incessant  gestures  for  increased  speed. 
We  were  not  over  anxious  to  hurry.  The  region 
was  extraordinary  and  its  geologic  features,  as 
connected  with  this  unparalleled  deposit,  or  vein,  or 
lode,  or  whatever  it  was,  of  radium,  were  certainly 
worth  noting.  And  then  our  heads!  Hopkins 
diverted  us  by  his  misery. 

"I'd  like  to  look  inside  of  my  cranium  just  now. 
I  couldn't  begin  to  tell  how  it  feels;  something,  I 
should  say,  like  what  gunpowder  men  call  defla- 
gration is  taking  place  there,  popguns  going  off 
every  few  minutes,  with  a  hurdy-gurdy  accompani- 
ment in  my  ears  and  a  bad  taste  in  my  mouth. 

"The  Professor  really  ought  to  be  very  careful 
and  avoid  any  extra  exertion.  In  a  bean  as  full  as 
his,  there  probably  isn't  much  room  for  expansion, 


278  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

and  I  guess  the  right  word  for  describing  our  condi- 
tion is  expansion — almost  unHmited.  My  head 
may  seem  no  bigger  than  usual,  but  I  should  say  it 
had  already  grown  large  enough  for  distribution  to 
a  dozen  headless  gentlemen,  enough  to  give  each 
of  them  a  head  piece  of  ordinary  dimensions. 
Whew — but  this  is  fierce." 

The  poor  fellow  had  clapped  both  hands  to  his 
head  as  if  to  actually  hold  it  together.  And  with 
all  of  us  the  inscrutable  sensations  were  becoming 
insufferable.  Goritz  insisted  on  keeping  on  but  we 
overruled  that.  It  was  just  possible  that  our 
resting  a  while  might  accustom  us  to  the  strange 
influence  of  atmosphere,  and  enable  us  to  proceed 
without  this  torturing  plague  of  heat  and  noise  and 
dilation  in  our  poor  heads.  We  sat  down.  Ooga- 
lah  quickly  discovered  our  reluctance,  and  was  back 
with  us  in  a  trice,  gesticulating  and  vociferating  as 
well,  absolutely  unaffected,  which  brought  to  the 
suffering  Yankee's  face  the  most  comical  expression 
of  disgust  and  surprise. 

"I  say,  Erickson,  this  has  me  guessing.  What 
do  you  suppose  that  fellow's  made  of?  Rubber? 
Cork?  Do  you  know  I  believe  he'd  put  electrocu- 
tion on  the  fritz.  You'd  be  compelled  to  pulverize 
him  if  you  ever  expected  to  drive  the  life  out  of  his 
body.  One  hundred  yards  more  of  this  and  I'll 
either  join  the  choir  invisible  ipse  motu,  as  they 
say  in  the  books,  or  just  get  one  of  you  to  pass  me 
over  with  a  wallop  on  the  cocoa,  or  a  fine  slit  along 
the  carotid.  I  believe  I  could  go  so  far  as  to  com- 
mit hari-kari,  and  not  know  it.  It  can't  be 
possible  that  you  fellows  don't  notice  it." 

"Notice  it!"  I  answered,  "My  head  feels  like  a 
balloon.  I  almost  wonder  I  don't  float  off  with  it. 
We  can't  last  this  way.  It  would  be  a  sorry  ending 
to  this  famous  exploit,  if  we  were  all  to  burst  like 
soap  bubbles." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  279 

Oogalah  by  means  of  elaborate  pantomime  to  the 
Professor,  and  a  few  intelligible  words  to  Goritz 
acquainted  us  with  his  assurance  that  a  hill  about 
one  hundred  yards  away  would  bring  us  relief.  We 
struggled  to  it,  sick  and  staggering.  To  our 
amazement  upon  ascending  it  a  little  way  relief 
came,  and  our  tormented  heads  sensibly  shrank — so 
it  felt — to  something  like  their  usual  volume. 
Then  we  noticed,  guided  by  the  Professor's  acumen 
in  such  matters,  that  while  the  region  was  unmis- 
takably an  igneous  complex,  the  rocks  we  had 
passed  over  were  entirely  granitic,  and  the  eleva- 
tion on  which  we  now  stood  was  a  basic  olivine- 
peridotite,  dense  and  black,  and  in  some  way 
exempt  from  the  radiumistic  occlusions  which  per- 
haps saturated  the  granitic  batholith  around  it.  I 
will  not  stop  to  discuss  this,  sir,  but  later  we  indeed 
established  the  fact  that  the  enormous  outflow  of 
granite  lava  had  brought  to  the  surface  innumerable 
radium  bodies,  distributed  through  it  in  molecular 
aggregates  of  considerable  size,  and  that  the  unseen 
but  voluminous  discharge  of  the  emanation  so 
affected  us,  while  the  gabbro  dikes,  containing  none, 
afforded  an  impermeable  flooring  for  our  passage. 

Then,  too,  we  were  now  approaching  the  splendid 
prism  of  light  that  shot  upward,  yet  obliquely,  in  a 
vast  pulsating  diffusion  of  a  delicate  radiance  that 
grew,  as  we  advanced,  more  and  more  intolerable. 
Our  progress  consisted  now  in  crossing,  as  quickly 
as  our  stumbling  movements  would  allow,  the 
granitic  intervals  that  separated  the  ranges  of  low 
basic  hills.  On  these  latter  we  regained  our 
strength  and  composure,  and  prepared  for  the  suc- 
ceeding dashes  that  carried  us  over  the  perilous 
interludes.  It  was  amazing  to  watch  the  insou- 
ciance and  activity  of  our  guide.  He  did  not  even 
protect  his  eyes.  It  seemed  as  if  some  physiological 
peculiarity  rendered  him  immune  to  the  terrifiyng 


280  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

disorders  that  signalized  to  us,  instantly,  the  pre- 
sence of  these  puissant  particles  of  radium,  or  else 
he  had  become  so  from  his  long  continued  exposures, 
a  theory  quite  incomprehensible  to  us. 

But  even  to  this  dogged  and  halting  march  there 
was  a  limit.  Oogalah  himself  had  enough  rectitude 
of  purpose  to  realize  that,  and  perhaps  too  he  felt 
vainglorious  of  his  superiority.  He  indicated 
almost  sternly  a  final  towering  hill,  a  continuation 
of  the  broken  cordillera  we  had  been  following, 
which  should  be  the  terminus  of  our  exploration. 
We — at  least  Hopkins  and  myself — would  not  have 
cared  to  overpass  it.  We  were  deadly  faint  and 
exhausted  when  we  reached  it,  and  but  for  the 
magnanimous  help  of  the  Eskimo,  who  carried  our 
packs,  I  think  we  would  have  swooned  and  fallen 
by  the  way.  The  Professor  seemed  the  least 
susceptible  to  the  mysterious  influence,  and  this 
amusingly  vexed  and  confounded  Hopkins.  Brute 
willpower  and  his  insatiable  fever  of  desire  to  obtain 
the  transmuting  substance  which  raised  before  him 
the  vision  of  boundless  wealth,  kept  Goritz  on  his 
feet.  With  the  Professor  it  was  the  energizing 
power  of  scientific  curiosity.  The  paralyzing 
effect  of  suffocation  was  really  noticeable. 

Well,  after  a  few  minutes'  rest,  with  Goritz 
impatient  and  the  Professor  aflame  with  wonder, 
we  started  up  a  portentously  narrow  hill,  and  a  high 
one  too.  Oogalah  pointed  out  its  pinnacle  as  our 
destination,  and  then  turned  westward  into  that 
dizzying  and  unearthly  country  wherein  lay  the 
trough  of  radium.  Around  us  fell  the  radiance  of 
its  wonderful  emission,  but  we  found  that  the 
climbing  path — it  had  been  worn  well  into  the  rock 
by  previous  pilgrims — -clung  to  the  eastward  scarp 
of  the  hill,  and  was  therefore  actually  in  shadow — 
a  welcome  relief.  Perhaps  five  hours  were  con- 
sumed in  this  toilsome  ascent,  but  when  we  reached 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  281 

the  last  winding  trail,  and  had  clambered  to  a  small 
shelf  immediately  under  the  ragged  apex,  we  looked 
over  a  scene  of  unparalleled  terribleness. 

The  pen  of  Dante  or  the  pencil  of  Dore  alone 
could  have  done  justice  to  its  weird  and  frightful 
desolation,  not  entirely  expressed  in  lifelessness,  but 
in  the  awful  grimace  in  it  of  tortured  and  disfigured 
matter.  The  blacks,  purples  and  reds,  smeared 
over  it  wrote  in  it  a  sort  of  agony  of  disgrace  and 
unseemliness  and  pain.  I  wonder  if  the  landscapes 
of  the  Moon  resemble  it. 

For  a  long  way  in  the  foreground,  where  we  saw 
with  astonishment  the  running  figure  of  Oogalah, 
stretched  a  broken  platform  of  white  quartzite, 
and  through  this  sprang  the  strangest  confusion  of 
lines,  skeins,  dashes  and  drippings  of  black,  purple, 
brown,  and  traceable  here  and  there,  as  of  the 
tracks  of  a  bleeding  animal  or  man,  chained  drops  of 
red.  It  was  not  beautiful  certainly,  it  had  no 
ornamental  or  decorative  features;  it  was,  rather, 
scoriaceous  and  blasting. 

Beyond  this  rugose  platform  rose  two  mounds, 
one  ashen  and  white — the  Professor  said  it  was  a 
bleached,  corroded  and  kaolinized  granite — the 
other  a  purplish,  livid  mass  streaked  with  threads  or 
blotches  of  yellow  (sulphur,  the  Professor  thought), 
and  these  hills  ran  north  and  south,  becoming 
reduced  to  sprawling  and  unwholesome  heaps  of 
slaggy  consistency  which  ever  and  anon  encroached 
on  the  quartzite  zone  and  even  encumbered  it,  as  if 
tossed  upon  it  in  drifts  of  scattered  nodules. 

Through  the  gateway,  between  the  two  first 
mounds,  we  saw  even  now  the  form  of  Oogalah 
passing,  but  he  was  no  longer  erect.  He  was 
crawling  on  hands  and  knees,  and  over  his  head 
hung  a  towel.  Hopkins  and  myself  shuddered  for 
him.  His  venturesome  undertaking  seemed  to  us 
simply  suicide.     He  intended  to  bring  us  each  a 


282  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

mass  of  the  mineral — a  small  piece.  When  he 
gathered  this  miracle-working  substance  for  Radi- 
umopolis,  we  were  told,  he  first  camped  behind  one 
of  the  peridotite  hills,  then  issued  upon  his  danger- 
ous mission,  collected  what  he  could,  returned  to  his 
camp,  and  for  weeks  kept  at  it  until  his  supply  was 
sufficient.  The  store  made,  he  removed  it  in  the 
same  laborious  way,  stage  by  stage,  until  he  came 
to  the  safer  country,  where  he  was  met  by  numerous 
assistants  who  transported  the  radium  homeward. 
But  we  could  see  from  our  elevation  beyond 
these  dead  heaps,  beyond,  into  the  vale  of  Acheron, 
as  it  were, 

Quam  super  hand  ullae  poterant  impune 

volantes 
Tendere  iter  pennis; 

a  further  dead  valley  declining  into  the  deeper 
chasm  from  which  sprang  the  auroral  light.  This 
chasm  was  evidently  indefinitely  prolonged  north- 
ward ;  from  it  rose  the  coronation  or  rays  which 
seemed  converged  upon  a  marvelous  blazing  preci- 
pice on  the  further  boundary  of  this  irregular, 
narrow,  longitudinal  canon.  Into  the  canon  itself 
it  was  impossible  to  look.  It  was  enclosed  in  the 
upper  valley  which  we  could  see,  and  which 
presented  a  spectacle  of  stony  desolation.  Its 
sides  were  evidently  precipitous  on  the  east,  and 
pretty  generally  hidden  from  us,  but  on  the  west  it 
presented  to  us  a  long,  receding  slope  of  rock 
palely  illuminated  beneath  the  light  streaming  in 
a  broad  and  thick  flood  over  it.  These  rock 
exposures  were  curiously  discolored,  and  also 
curiously  spotted  with  glow-spots,  from  included 
radium  perhaps. 

Clefts  or  rents  tore  down  their  sides,  and  ragged, 
serpentine  embrasures  interrupted  the  clifTs  that 
bordered  it.     Black  recesses  contrasted  with  the 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  283 

bright  surfaces,  and  sharp  crests  (arete)  bristled 
here  and  there  in  jagged  series,  where  the  cHffs 
attained  elevations  of  probably  thousands  of  feet. 
It  was  a  vast  abyss  and  was  split  more  deeply  by  a 
secondary  and  later  fissure  which  had  uncovered 
the  central  masses  of  radium.  Nowhere  could  we 
discern  any  evidences  of  aqueo-thermal  activity, 
no  steam  spirals  anywhere.  The  vapor  line  was 
eastward  along  the  crack  where  the  Perpetual  Nim- 
bus appeared.  Beyond,  far  beyond,  rose  the  snowy 
tops,  the  glacier  ridden  summits  of  the  Krocker 
Land  Rim. 

It  was  enthralling.  Remember,  Mr.  Link,  it  was 
the  night  time  of  the  polar  world,  and  here  all  was 
bathed  in  light  or  silhouetted  in  shadow,  while  that 
Stationary  Sun  which  filled  the  immense  valley  land 
with  light,  imparted  to  it  warmth;  it  shone  in  its 
peculiar  zenith,  deriving  in  some  way  (by  reflection 
from  the  crystalline  walls  to  the  west)  its  replenish- 
ment of  light  and  heat  from  this  stupendous  source 
of  both.  We  watched  in  a  trance  of  amazement 
for  hours.  There  were  perceptible  pulsations  in  the 
emanation,  and  it  was  altogether  remarkable  to 
observe  that  these  were  recorded  in  the  variable 
sun,  obviously  susceptible  to  these  changes.  Its 
reference  (the  sun's)  to  the  radium  masses,  here 
uncovered,  was  now  indisputable. 

It  had  now  in  the  advanced  season  become 
apparent  that  the  earth's  secular  changes  were  not 
quite  dissipated  in  the  Krocker  Land  basin  by  its 
unique  feature  of  the  Stationary  Sun.  For  weeks 
it  had  been  growing  colder,  and  now — to  our 
astonishment  a  spectacle  of  dazzling  beauty  relieved 
the  singular  weird  terror  of  this  lifeless  scene.  We 
saw  a  gathering  gloom  from  far  away  darken  the 
peaks  of  the  Krocker  Land  Rim;  it  spread  and  be- 
came revealed  as  a  snowstorm.  A  wind  brushed 
over  us — another  instant  and   the  wide  zone  of 


284  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

delicate  radiation  was  transformed  into  an  inde- 
scribably glorious  firmament  of  stars,  shifting, 
dying  out  and  renewed,  and  around  us  from  the  sky 
fell  a  shower  of  icy  particles,  a  flurry  from  the 
tempest  that  was  sweeping  over  the  distant  ranges. 

Hardly  had  we  recovered  from  the  shock  of  this 
unexpected  display  when  we  heard  the  voice  and 
saw  the  form  of  Oogalah  approaching  our  position, 
from  the  opposite  side  of  the  hill.  He  had  executed 
his  errand  and  was  returning,  and  the  expanded 
bag  in  his  hands  showed  that  he  had  accomplished 
his  purpose.  We  had  seen  him  disappear  in  the 
defiles  beyond  the  crumbling  hills.  He  showed  the 
strain  of  his  work  and  the  efifect  of  the  unnatural 
influence  of  that  exposure,  but  in  a  short  time,  after 
resting,  his  strength  and  composure  returned,  and 
he  was  ready  for  the  home  journey.  He  afterwards 
told  me  he  had  never  looked  into  the  chasm,  or 
chasms,  whence  the  radium  emissions  or  radiations 
proceeded.  He  had  not  cared  to.  Once  on  the 
field  of  his  dangerous  occupation,  groveling  to  the 
ground,  he  moved  cautiously  over  the  rocky  floor- 
ing, and  extracted  the  mineral  masses  from  the 
veins  wherein  they  seemed  to  be  segregated,  ham- 
mering them  out.  Formerly  he  had  been  able  to 
pick  the  nodules  up  loose  from  the  granite  ledges. 
That  was  no  longer  possible.  He  had  exhausted 
the  supply  of  free  lumps,  and  now  he  was  compelled 
to  practice  this  superficial  mining.  He  knew  that 
the  surface  finds  were  abundant  further  down  the 
slopes  of  the  defile,  but  he  dreaded  the  experiment 
of  entering  further  into  the  disorganizing  influences 
of  the  lethal  chamber.  He  had  once  been  rash  in 
that  way  and  had  swooned,  and  only  the  brush  of 
some  cavorting  wind  current  from  above,  such  as 
we  had  ourselves  felt,  had  sufficiently  revived  him 
to  enable  him  to  regain  his  feet  and  to  escape. 

On  our  return  Goritz  monopolized  Oogalah.     He 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  285 

plied  him  with  questions,  and  evinced  the  most 
excited  interest  in  his  work.  Poor  fellow — the 
poison  of  the  lust  for  gold,  sacri  fames  auri,  had 
entered  his  mind  and  heart.  A  magnificent  man, 
Mr.  Link,  sturdy,  resourceful,  remorselessly  self 
forgetful,  and  most  simple  in  tastes,  a  lovable 
brother,  if  ever  there  was  one,  but  sir,  never  the 
same  after  that  unlucky  find  of  the  gold  belt,  when 
we  crossed  the  first  barrier  of  the  Krocker  Land 
Rim. 

He  became  secretive,  avaricious,  moody, 
impatient,  a  delirious  dreamer,  and  then  most 
unaccountably  suspicious.  It  was  a  revolution  in 
character  that  would  have  puzzled  an  expert  in 
psychology  or  nerves  to  explain.  To  me  it  was  a 
pretty  bad  shock,  and  when  at  last  the  unhappy 
man — but  let  that  wait.  It  displays  a  measure  of 
the  pernicious  power  of  the  temptation  of  money  to 
corrupt  (the  word  in  Goritz's  case  is  misapplied),  to 
alter  nature  and  temperament,  and  all  because  he 
expected  to  enjoy  its  pleasures  in  the  world  we  had 
left;  for  gold  in  Krocker  Land  for  any  of  ordinary 
uses,  like  ours,  was  literally  not  much  more  desir- 
able than  so  much  earth.  To  the  Radiumopolite  it 
administered,  it  is  true,  a  mild  esthetic  pleasure. 
There  was  some  recondite  recognition  in  his  in- 
genuous nature  of  its  beauty  at  least,  and  its 
unchangeableness.  To  the  rulers,  the  doctors,  the 
chiefs,  it  may  have  seemed  more;  at  any  rate  they 
devoted  it  to  the  purposes  of  distinction  and 
religion. 

Goritz  on  our  way  back  was  most  impatient  to 
examine  the  strange  mineral  Oogalah  had  brought 
us,  but  the  man  refused  to  let  him,  intimating,  quite 
fiercely,  that  it  should  be  distributed  among  us  when 
we  got  back  to  the  Capitol,  and  not  before.  This 
refusal  really  arose  from  his  intention  of  giving  the 
Professor  the  largest  piece.     As  Hopkins  averred. 


286  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

the  Professor  had  Oogalah  ''buffaloed"  an  epitom- 
ized substitute,  certainly  not  intelHgible,  for  a 
lengthier  explanation  of  the  Professor's  extra- 
ordinary influence  over  the  man. 

I  remember  we  were  all  silent  on  our  way  back; 
we  were  dazed,  and  the  journey  had  been  rapid 
and  arduous.  The  Professor  himself  had  indeed, 
for  weeks  past,  neglected  to  speculate  on  the  wonders 
about  us,  and  we  now  seldom  received  from  him 
those  lectures  with  which  he  had  first  instructed  us. 
Perhaps  he  was  overwhelmed  by  the  incredible 
realization  of  the  prophecies  he  had  made  to  us  on 
the  sylvan  banks  (how  far  away  and  distant  they 
seemed)  of  the  beautiful  fiord  in  Norway,  under  a 
summer  sky. 

Once  again  within  the  charmed  borders  of  the 
Valley  of  Rasselas  we  found  the  highway  deserted. 
It  was  a  contrast  to  the  eager  multitudes  that  had 
escorted  us  when  we  left.  Past  the  mysterious 
swamps  on  the  right  from  which,  at  one  moment,  I 
thought  I  heard  a  queer  sucking  wail  or  bark,  as  of 
some  big  animal,  and  on  into  the  city,  and  yet  no 
encounters!  Past  the  bathhouses,  over  the  wide 
serpent  pasture  with  its  populous  cribs,  up  the  wide 
western  terrace  of  steps  of  the  Golden  Capitol,  and 
not  one  welcoming  face — only  the  listless  snakes 
sluggishly  gliding  or  coiled  in  varnished  mats. 

To  these  omnipresent,  pervading  inhabitants  we 
had  become,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,  accustomed ; 
we  found  them  in  the  streets  of  the  city,  and  through 
the  courtyard  of  the  Palace,  over  the  parapets, 
ensconced  in  niches  in  the  walls,  rising  hideously 
from  the  pavement  of  the  inner  halls,  or  unexpec- 
tedly and  unwholesomely  slipping  over  the  mats  of 
our  rooms,  or  dripping  like  dark  thongs  from  their 
cornices.     Hopkins  detested  them. 

"I  tell  you,  Erickson,"  he  would  exclaim,  "an 
externalized    delirium    tremens    of    this    sort    is 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  287 

worse  than  drink.  Beats  me  how  people  ever  came 
to  think  well  of  these  critters.  They're  the  most 
painfully  unpleasant  denizens  of  this  earth  that  I 
have  ever  encountered — to  me.  Tastes  differ  of 
course,  but  I  can't  help  feeling  that  nobody  really 
likes  'em,  and  pretences  to  the  contrary  are  just 
plain  lies,  or  the  deponents  have  never  enjoyed  the 
advantages  of  a  public  school  education,  a  hot  bath, 
towels,  soap,  the  morning  newspaper,  pure  food, 
clean  shirts,  and  the  white  things  that  generally  go 
to  make  up  white  civilization — in  other  words, 
Alfred,  they're  just  savages  like  these  big  and  little 
demons  all  around  us." 

"How  about  Ziliah?"  I  might  ask  mischievously. 

The  handsome  fellow  would  smile  bewitchingly. 
"Say  Erickson,  if  Ziliah  and  I  ever  go  to  house- 
keeping we'll  cut  out  the  snakes — /  will — and  I'll 
start  up  Anti-Snake  missions,  until  we  get  the 
people  converted  into  regular  Christians — the  real 
Irish  sort.  Then  I'll  come  the  St.  Patrick  act  on 
them,  and  exterminate  the  varmints,  and  coming 
generations,  hereabouts,  will  call  me  blessed." 

We  were  somewhat  more  astonished  to  enter  the 
western  doorway  of  the  Capitol  and  still  find  no  one, 
but  we  could  see  darkly  through  its  dingy  length — 
the  radium  lamps  were  covered — and  noted  a  crowd 
outside  of  its  eastern  entrance.  At  the  same  time 
something  like  beating  cymbals  and  tanging  drums 
came  to  our  ears,  and  then  unmistakably  the  shouts 
of  people. 

"They've  come  back,"  shouted  Oogalah  in  his 
lingo,  and  he  rushed  past  us,  mad  with  expectation. 

We  followed  him  with  almost  equal  precipitancy, 
and  the  bag  of  radium  mineral  that  had  cost  us  all 
this  effort  was  forgotten.  Oogalah  dropped  it,  we 
neglected  it  in  the  sudden  excitement,  and — it  was 
never  again  found. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Pool  of  Oblation 

Oogalah  was  right.  It  was  the  return  of  the 
pilgrims,  and  the  dehghted  city,  plunged  for  days 
in  wondering  doubt  over  their  safety  had  rushed 
bodily  out  to  meet  them.  Our  momentary  impor- 
tance was  hopelessly  eclipsed.  I  dreaded  lest  it 
might  undergo  an  inverted  resurrection,  and  that 
these  potent  little  men,  incensed  over  our  dis- 
covered depredations,  might  turn  angrily  upon  us 
and  destroy  us.  For  the  moment  I  forgot  these 
apprehensions  in  pure  admiration  at  the  novel 
exhibition. 

When  we  emerged  on  the  courtyard  at  the  eastern 
entrance  of  the  Capitol  we  found  the  broad  mound 
on  which  the  gold  house  was  erected  crowded. 
Immediately  in  front  of  it  was  a  jostling  mass 
of  women,  and  prominent  among  them,  by 
reason  of  stature  and  position,  was  standing  the 
pretty  Ziliah,  arrayed  in  certainly  her  best  and 
most  becoming  costume,  at  the  head  of  the  broad 
stairway,  a  view  down  which  led  the  eye  straight 
eastward  over  the  wide  thoroughfare,  now  fenced 
in  by  enthusiastic  multitudes.  Literary  reminders 
constantly  recur  to  me,  and  just  then  I  was  amused 
to  find  myself  picturing  Rome  when  Pompey 
entered  it  and  recalling  Marullus'  proud  words,  in 
Julius  Caesar: 

288 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  289 

"And  when  you  saw  his  chariot  but  appear, 
Have  you  not  made  a  universal  shout, 
That  Tiber  trembled  underneath  her  banks 
To  hear  the  replication  of  your  sounds 
Made  in  her  concave  shores?" 

There  was  no  Tiber,  to  be  sure,  but  there  were 
the  people,  and  the  shout,  albeit  rather  more  shrill 
and  piercing  than  thunderous.  The  air  seemed  at 
moments  and  in  places  thick  with  the  rising  hats 
that  were  tossed  with  splendid  nerv-e,  in  acclama- 
tion of  the  advancing  procession. 

On  it  came,  hardly  visible  at  first,  save  as  an 
oscillating  shimmer  and  movement,  and  accom- 
panying the  incessant  rumpus  of  the  shattering 
cymbals  and  the  thumping  drums.  The  musicians 
evinced  a  pardonable  pride  and  extracted  as  much 
noise  as  vigor  and  appreciation  could  extort  from 
their  very  willing  instruments.  It  was  exciting 
enough.  As  the  first  companies  of  the  Eskimos 
approached  and  the  cataract  of  sound  poured  over 
us  we  sought  some  higher  outlook.  A  narrow  ledge 
like  a  water-table  separated  the  second  from  the 
first  story  of  rooms  in  the  communal  palace.  We 
could,  by  boosting  and  climbing  on  each  other, 
reach  this,  and  once  there  the  coup  d'oeil  would  be 
complete.  Goritz  bent  forward.  With  the  light- 
ness of  a  deer  Hopkins  sprang  up,  straightened  him- 
self, and  touched  the  coping.  He  swung  onto  it, 
and — I  half  dreaded  it  would  give  way — it  held. 
Then  we  maneuvered  the  Professor  up.  I  followed 
and  with  a  long  pull  we  jerked  Goritz  off  his  feet  and 
hauled  him  to  us,  and  thus  rather  absurdly  and 
flagrantly  placed,  we  awaited  the  event.  Our  feet 
dangled  over  the  crowd  below  and,  as  we  were  in 
full  view  of  the  terrace  of  steps  and  the  road,  the 
first  thing  the  returning  "doctors"  would  behold, 
would  be  our  desecrating  presence  on  the  walls  of 


290  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

the  palace.     But  we  were  oblivious  to  consequences 
just  then. 

Gazing  down  immediately  underneath  our  perch 
we  saw  the  ladies  of  the  Capitol  bunched  in  a  many 
colored  knot  at  the  head  of  the  steps.  Crushing 
upon  them  were  the  servants,  attendants,  guards, 
and  an  indiscriminate  crowd  of  citizens,  and  down 
these  steps,  kept  inviolately  clean,  on  either  side, 
was  a  line  of  the  taller  Eskimos,  a  man  to  every 
step,  with  a  black  snake  coiled  round  his  waist,  but 
with  its  neck  and  head  held  outward  in  an  inclined 
position,  so  that  a  view  from  our  seat  crossed  a  pro- 
file of  extended  snakes'  heads  and  necks,  somewhat 
symmetrically  displayed  in  two  series.  It  was  a 
most  peculiar  bizarre  picture. 

Already  the  first  regiment  of  men  in  the  proces- 
sion had  halted,  fallen  irregularly  backward  along 
the  side  of  the  road,  and  then  massed  beyond  these 
was  the  tireless  band,  men  and  women  in  their 
tight  bodices  and  sacks,  their  naked  legs,  and  the 
picturesque  gold  knee-caps.  Almost  instantly 
appeared  the  bright  gold  poles,  around  which,  when 
we  met  them  in  the  pine  forest,  had  been  coiled  the 
imprisoned  snakes.  The  snakes  were  no  longer  on 
them.  The  companies  holding  these  advanced, 
strode  up  the  steps,  and  stalwartly,  with  a  martial 
erectness  absent  from  everyone  else,  lined  them- 
selves with  the  snake  holders.  The  diversified  and 
variegated  cohorts  of  the  little  people  which  we  had 
noticed  in  the  forest,  had  evidently  dispersed,  lost 
here  and  there  along  the  route,  for  they  doubtless 
were  adventitious  accretions,  followers  from  custom 
or  for  amusement,  and  with  them  too  had  vanished 
the  very  considerable  commissariat. 

There  remained  only  the  jaunting  cars,  with  their 
odd  but  impressive  little  occupants,  and  that  jolt- 
ing, shivering,  monstrous  gold  throne,  bearing  the 
shocking  effigy  of  the  Crocodilo-Python.     Yes,  and 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  291 

here  they  were!  The  tugging  rams  with  snail  tipped 
horns,  and  the  council  in  violet  gowns  bedizened 
with  gold  braid  and  chains,  utterly  insignificant 
lilliputian  creatures,  with  their  beetle  heads. 
True,  but  the  deadly  power  lurking  in  those  metal 
tubes — What  was  that? — not  to  be  gainsaid,  not  to 
be  denied.  The  thought  of  it  gave  me  a  shuddering 
sense  of  impotence,  before  these  caricatures  of  men. 

Of  course  the  wagons  could  not  ascend  the  steps, 
and  the  governors  softly  alighted — it  was  quite 
delightful  to  see  their  noiseless  flitting  to  and  fro — 
purring  into  each  other's  ears  as  they  came 
together,  and  then  separating  with  mimic  gestures 
of  expostulation  or  disgust  or  approval.  They 
looked,  so  we  thought,  almost  as  they  had  when  we 
first  met  them,  and  I  began  to  wonder  whether  they 
did  not  harbor  in  their  light,  frameless  and  bobbing 
little  anatomies,  extraordinary  powers  of  resistance, 
abnormal  energies  perhaps. 

There  was  a  little  decorous  shifting  to  and  fro, 
and  ceremonious  bowing  and  scraping,  which  had 
the  most  incalculably  ludicrous  appearance,  as  if, 
after  all,  they  were  nothing  but  vaudeville  puppets. 
Hopkins  of  course  appreciated  all  that  uproariously. 
Finally  they  started  up  the  stairs,  led  by  the  be- 
nignant little  gentleman  who  had  told  the  Professor 
to  "speak,"  and  afterwards  most  effectively  had  gone 
through  the  dumb  show  of  telling  him  to  "shut  up," 
and  who,  by  the  way,  was  Ziliah's  father.  They 
rose  towards  us  with  a  mincing  dignity  that  was 
really  pleasing.  We  noticed  again  their  whiteness, 
their  thinness,  their  long  arms,  their  thin  fingers, 
their  senile-like  agitation,  their  pointed  beards,  and 
the  singular  splendor  of  their  eyes.  The  latter 
were  now  uncovered,  the  disfiguring  goggles  hung 
from  their  necks  by  the  most  delicate  filaments  of 
gold. 

There  were  quite  a  number  of  them,  perhaps 


292  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

thirty  in  all,  and  as  they  slowly  drew  near  to  us  we 
realized  that  while  they  belonged  to  the  racial 
configuration  of  the  little  people,  they  were  prob- 
ably immensely  removed  from  them,  too,  by  an 
intellectual  gap  that  bore  some  reference  to  train- 
ing or  descent.  The  Semitic  character  of  these 
little  people  was  irrefragable. 

Hardly  had  the  President — it  turned  out  that 
such  an  appellation  might  describe  him — reached 
the  middle  of  the  ascent  than  we  were  treated  to  a 
charming  show  of  filial  affection.  Ziliah,  ravish- 
ingly  fixed  up  in  close  fitting  attire,  and  distin- 
guished by  some  gold  trinkets  that  became  her 
extremely  well,  ran  down  the  steps  and — fell  into 
her  father's  arms?  No — not  that — exactly.  There 
were  some  insurmountable  difficulties,  related  to 
the  comparative  sizes  of  the  principals,  that  made 
that  commonplace  impossible.  Ziliah  took  her 
father  up,  hugged  him,  kissed  and — set  him  down 
again. 

I  heard  Hopkins  groan,  and  the  query  came  in  an 
undertone:    "Where's  my  mother-in-law?" 

After  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of  confusion. 
Mothers  and  daughters,  wives  and  sons,  the  magis- 
trates from  the  city  and  innumerable  friends 
poured  over  the  steps  to  meet  the  dignitaries,  and, 
for  all  the  world,  it  just  then  resembled,  allowing 
for  the  difference  in  latitude  and  other  things,  the 
homecoming  of  a  western  deputation  to  your  con- 
gress; their  arrival  at  the  town  hall,  and  their 
admiring  reception  by  the  neighbors.  And  the 
democratic  expression  of  things  increased.  The 
snake  sharps  on  the  steps,  so  Hopkins  designated 
them,  disappeared  with  their  charges,  depositing 
them  in  the  enclosures  in  the  "snake  pasture,"  the 
gold-polemen  scrambled  up  the  steps  and  entered 
the  Capitol,  the  rams,  jaunting  cars,  and  the  grin- 
ning throne-horror  left  too,  but  where  I  could  not 


€>^ 


Vx 


,--L*S'W*^' 


ZILIAH   AXD  HER   FATHER 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  293 

see.  We  encountered  the  latter  again  under  pretty 
startling  circumstances.  Then  when  all  this  had 
happened  the  crowds  from  the  city  jammed  every- 
thing, with  a  shrilling  of  voices  ascending  to  us  that 
sounded  like  a  magnification,  a  megaphoning,  of 
countless  crickets.  The  bigger  people,  the  Eskimos, 
were  scarcely  visible.  We  felt  relieved — /  did. 
We  had  been  quite  forgotten,  and  that  spoke  volumes 
for  our  safety.     We  discussed  the  situation. 

Hopkins:  "Suppose  we  get  down  and  join  the 
house  warming.  It's  just  possible  that  they  have 
something  better  to  eat  than  usual  on  occasions 
like  this.     I'd  welcome  a  change  of  diet." 

I:  "As  this  was  a  huge  snake  picnic,  it  may  be 
they  wind  it  up  by  eating  snakes." 

Hopkins:   "Bah!" 

The  Professor:  "My  friends,  now  that  the 
Faculty  has  returned  Erickson  must  interview 
them,  explain  our  mission,  establish  scientific 
relations  with  them  if  possible,  get  the  records, 
assure  them  of  the  astonishment  which  will  be  felt 
over  their  existence  when  we  report  it  before  the 
scientific  bodies  of  the  world,  solicit  from  them  some 
demonstration  of  their  knowledge  of  transmutation, 
aeronautics,  the  X-ray;  those  powerful  tubes  they 
manipulate;  and  then  really  we  should  be  thinking 
of  getting  home." 

I :  "Professor,  I  don't  think  we'll  find  the  Faculty, 
as  you  call  them,  very  communicative  ("Tight 
wads?"  interjected  Spruce.)  I've  learned  some 
things  from  Ziliah,  and  judging  from  her  communi- 
cations I  believe  these  people  know  very  little 
about  themselves  and  what's  more  I  believe  they 
exercise  their  occult  powers  without  knowing  the 
rationale  of  them  either.  At  any  rate  while  I  can 
get  along  with  their  speech  I  know  I  should  be 
floored  in  any  intricate  matter.  As  to — getting 
home.     I  agree  with  you,  but — HOW? 


294  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

The  Professor:  "But  Alfred,  be  reasonable. 
Learn  what  you  can.  Try  them.  I  do  admit  our 
return  presents  difficulties." 

Goritz:  "There  can't  be  much  of  the  naphtha 
launch  left  now." 

Hopkins:  "But  Antoine,  you  are  not  thinking  of 
getting  out!  I  believe  you  intended  to  apply  for 
naturalization  papers." 

The  Professor:  "There  are  the — Balloons? 
Perhaps—" 

Hopkins:  "Dear  Professor,  cut  it  out.  There  is 
some  difference  in  size  and  weight  between  these 
midgets  and  us.  Really,  if  you're  solicitous  on  the 
subject  of  the  posthumous  notices  you  are  destined 
to  receive  in  the  learned  journals  of  the  world,  try 
the  balloons.  None  in  mine.  Rocking  the  cradle 
and  watching  Ziliah  cook  snakes  is  preferable. 
And  seriously  I  could  make  a  hunch  at  getting  on 
here  if  somehow  we  could  improve  the  brand  of  the 
religion — but  this  snake  business  has  me  going. 
I  guess,  too,  a  little  eugenics  might  help  the  people. 
Interbreeding,  I  should  say,  with  the  huskies  would 
add  something  to  the  linear  dimensions  of  the  in- 
habitants, for  really  the  girls  have  some  class." 

I:  "It  seems  likely  to  me  that  one  might  reach 
Beaufort  Sea  by  a  short  overland  route  to  the  west. 
It's  pretty  clear  that  Radiumopolis  is  far  towards 
the  western  border  of  the  Valley  of  Rasselas,  and 
the  Rim,  and  the  sea  beyond  that,  are  not  far  off. 
Our  trip  to  the  radium  country  showed  that." 

The  Professor:  "The  importance  of  this  dis- 
covery outranks  anything  that  has  happened  in  the 
world  since  the  discovery  of  America.  It's  too 
astounding  to  be  even  indicated  in  a  few  words. 
The  radium  deposit  alone  is  the  most  tremendous 
fact  in  nature  today.  For  one,  I  should  deplore  the 
destruction  of  this  most  curious  aboriginal  culture 
with  the  ethnic  problems  displayed  in  it,  but  it  is 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  295 

our  indefeasible  right  to  proclaim  to  the  world  the 
presence  here  of  the  radium.  The  whole  aspect, 
industry,  economics,  finance,  health  of  the  world 
will  be  profoundly  modified  by  its  exploitation. 

Goritz:  "Well  I  should  say  nothing  about  it. 
Let  it  be.  We  can  use  what  we  learn  about  its 
powers  for  ourselves.  That  seems  right  enough  to 
me.  What  can  be  the  use  of  turning  the  whole 
world  topsy-turvy,  and  of  course  as  a  consequence 
exterminating  these  innocent  people.  Do  you 
suppose  you  could  hold  back  for  one  hour  the  ram- 
paging hordes  that  would  pour  into  this  little 
valley  and  inundate  it  with  hungry,  riotous 
savages?  Put  a  mining  town  with  its  rum  and  its 
demons  in  the  place  of  this  contented  realm  with  its 
picturesque  life,  its  peaceful  ceremonies,  its  long 
inherited  customs  that  for  centuries  upon  centuries 
have  never  changed;  erase  or  debauch  a  com- 
munity that  on  the  very  edge  of  the  roaring  world, 
since  time  began,  has  kept  on  its  quiet  hidden  way 
in  this  unassailable  nook,  and  do  you  think  you 
will  ever  forgive  yourselves  for  the  ruin,  the  devas- 
tation?    It  would  curse  you  to  your  death." 

We  all  looked  at  Goritz  with  surprise.  He  did 
not  often  turn  on  the  oratory  like  this.  It  was  a 
touch,  I  said  to  myself,  of  his  old  nature.  The 
plea  was  well  made  and  it  kept  us  silent  for  some 
time,  and  I  think  the  longer  we  measured  its  mean- 
ing the  more  it  affected  us.  Suddenly  Hopkins 
broke  the  silence. 

"Say,  where's  everybody?  There  isn't  a  soul  in 
sight."  It  was  true;  the  mound  hill,  the  court- 
yards, the  road,  the  steps,  the  doorway,  the  snake 
pasture,  the  parapets,  which  it  seemed  but  a  few 
moments  before  had  been  crammed  with  the  chat- 
tering multitude,  were  deserted.  In  our  absorp- 
tion, seated  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd  on  the 
comfortable  ledge,  we  had  forgotten  to  note  its 


296  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

disappearance.  Always  anxious  over  some  possible 
new  development  which  would  endanger  our  safety, 
and  never  confident  of  the  good  intentions  of  the 
little  wiseacres  with  their  preternatural  powers, 
their  minute  crooked  devices,  and  their  probable 
deceit  and  malevolence,  I  now  felt  some  alarm  at 
this  silence  and  desertion.  Was  it  some  new  turn  in 
affairs,  a  new  stage  in  their  ceremonial  procedure 
that  portended  any  harm  to  us?  I  had  wondered 
over  the  apparent  forgetfulness  of  our  presence, 
and  our  absolute  neglect.  Was  it  part  of  some 
preconcerted  design,  an  ostentatious  indifference, 
concealing  some  mischievous  plot  for  our  undoing? 
For  it  was  quite  easy,  indeed  unavoidable  to  con- 
ceive, that  these  little  rulers,  impregnable  hitherto 
in  their  power,  would  view  suspiciously  our  advent 
among  them.  A  secluded  bred-in  civilization  like 
this,  is  jealous  of  intrusion,  resents  the  foreigner, 
and  spurns  novelty.  It  has  always  been  so  and 
the  Faculty — the  word  the  Professor  complimented 
them  with — would  readily  descry  in  us  the  fore- 
runners of  a  more  dangerous  invasion.  It  would  be 
well  to  watch  them  and — where  they  were? 

I  leaped  to  the  ground  and  the  rest  at  once 
followed.  We  ran  around  the  corner  of  the  build- 
ing, first  to  the  north — in  which  direction  the  city 
was  far  less  expanded  than  southward  and  east- 
ward— and  the  same  emptiness  confronted  us. 
But  to  the  south  and  at  the  west  the  contrast  was 
startling.  The  areas  were  packed  with  strearning 
throngs;  crowds  from  streets  were  discharging  into 
the  broad  highway  leading  westward,  that  one  on 
which  we  had  just  returned  from  the  radium  hunt, 
and,  as  we  hastened  to  the  west  side  of  the  Capitol, 
we  saw  that  the  concourse  was  passing  out  on  the 
same  boulevard  towards  the  swamp  land  just  out- 
side the  ranges  of  the  city.  Our  elevation  enabled 
us  to  trace  the  variegated  ribbon  of  people,  made 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  297 

up  of  the  little  folk  for  the  most  part,  and  occasion- 
ally a  towering  figure,  moving  silently  outward  in 
an  enormous  evacuation  of  the  city.  What  had 
preceded  them  or  what  they  followed  we  could  not 
undertake  to  determine. 

Fragments  and  sections  of  the  formal  parade,  as 
it  had  returned  from  the  ceremonial  circuit,  were 
embedded  in  the  stream,  and  we  guessed  the  Coun- 
cil led  the  procession.  Glancing  into  the  broad 
central  hall  of  the  Capitol — where  the  radium 
lamps  were — nothing  was  seen.  The  big  commu- 
nal house  of  government  was  bare  and  abandoned. 
Goritz's  hand  passed  enviously  over  the  broad 
encrusting  plates  of  gold  which  now  any  ruthless 
pillager  could  have  torn  away,  but  he  did  not 
attempt  to  remove  one.  We  certainly  would  have 
interposed  had  he  tried  it.  It  required  no  delibera- 
tion on  our  part  to  conclude  to  mingle  in  the  crowds. 
It  might  be  that  if  their  destination  was  the  swamps 
we  now  might  learn  something  of  the  uses  of  that 
mystery-shrouded  depression  and  reservoir. 

Running  down  the  western  terrace  of  steps  we 
were  soon  immersed  in  the  multitude,  though  by 
reason  of  our  physical  proportions  we  rose  above 
them  like  tall  saplings  among  bushes.  Some 
familiarization  with  us  had  been  gained  by  the 
Radiumopolites,  and  although  we  never  stirred 
abroad  without  awakening  interest,  they  no  longer 
regarded  us  with  the  first  unsubdued  wonder  and 
curiosity.  And  on  this  occasion  we  were  less 
likely  to  excite  attention,  as  a  more  dreadful  expec- 
tation filled  their  minds. 

Slowly  we  made  our  way  for  a  mile  or  so  until 
the  sombre  thickets  and  enshrouding  vegetation  of 
the  swamps  came  into  view.  And  then  a  rapid 
dispersal  began.  Down  innumerable  paths  and 
trails,  all  more  or  less  artificially  finished,  the  people 
vanished.     Files  of  them  entered  these  forest  alley- 


298  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

ways  and  the  quickly  thinning  throngs  left  us  com- 
paratively free.  We  passed  a  broad  road  leading 
to  the  left,  down  which  in  the  distance  we  discerned 
a  line  of  vans  pulled  by  Eskimos,  and  on  them 
prostrate  and  bandaged  or  chained  figures,  some 
moving,  we  thought!  For  the  moment  we  were 
rooted  with  horror.  What  could  they  be?  What 
was  this?  A  public  execution,  a  sacrifice,  a  holo- 
caust? Good  God — could  it  be  a  cannibalistic 
feast?  Great  as  were  our  suspicion  and  terror,  the 
constraining  power  of  a  savage  curiosity  drove  us 
on.  Down  the  very  next  lane  we  met,  we  rushed 
pele-mele,  with  something  like  rage,  something  like 
disgust,  something  like  a  sickening  fear,  a  blend 
hard  to  analyze. 

Perhaps  we  had  run  a  half  a  mile,  when  we  burst 
through  the  last  encircling  hedge  of  bushes  and 
found  ourselves  on  the  shore  of  a  turbid,  muddy, 
malodorous  pool,  confined  by  a  low  wall  of  clay, 
paved  with  tile,  and  then  surrounded  by  the  out- 
stretched cordons  of  the  adult  population — not  a 
child  was  visible — of  Radiumopolis!  And  immedi- 
ately above  us,  at  the  side,  so  that  we  could  inspect 
the  actions  of  its  occupants,  was  a  low  platform, 
also  of  clay,  perhaps  twenty  feet  high.  On  this 
platform,  ranged  in  a  circle,  were  those  detestable 
worthies  (?)  and  behind  them  stood  the  vans,  and 
on  the  vans — motionless  bodies  in  small  low  heaps, 
like  fagoted  wood!  Yes!  They  were  dead — all 
dead — quite  dead.     God  be  praised  for  that! 

From  somewhere  back  of  the  platform  the  cym- 
bals began  their  clamorous  cries,  but  whether  it 
was  due  to  an  augmented  band  or  an  exasperated 
effort,  the  noise  seemed  redoubled,  rising  into  a 
screeching  tumult  quite  indescribable.  And  then 
the  people  shouted.  It  sounded  like  Lam-bo-o, 
Lam-bo-oo. 

It  was  a  curious  vocality  and  perhaps  as  nearly 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  299 

as  anything  might  be  likened  to  the  querulous 
squeal  of  monkeys,  with  just  a  faint  amelioration 
of  disapproval  on  the  assumption  that  it  was  sing- 
ing. That — the  combined  discord  of  the  cymbals 
and  the  singing — continued  for  perhaps  fifteen 
minutes,  with  intervals  of  a  minute  or  so.  It  was 
altogether  unearthly.  Now  we  began  to  see  that 
the  pond  or  pool  or  swamp  connected  by  a  narrow 
neck  of  water  with  more  remote  basins,  that  may 
have  had  interminable  connections  in  all  directions, 
forming  a  web  of  waterways. 

From  these  distant  bayous  and  lagoons  now 
issued  three  or  four  or  five  sinuous  monsters,  rush- 
ing forward  upon  the  waves  of  their  own  distur- 
bance, their  saurian  heads  raised  slightly,  and  the 
huge  convolutions  of  their  tails  discerned  in  the 
wash  of  their  wakes,  as  they  hastened,  as  if  with 
some  anticipatory  avidity  for  their  meal,  towards 
us,  towards  the  platform,  from  where  the  immola- 
tion awaited  them.  They  were  the  Crocodilo- 
Pythons.  We  recognized  at  once  the  white-green 
beasts  we  had  seen  in  the  Saurian  Sea.  Yes,  the 
same  obscene,  unspeakable  beasts. 

They  only  revealed  their  terrifying  bulk  as  they 
approached  the  platform  and  finally  came  to  rest 
before  it.  Then  inserting  their  muscular  posteriors 
in  the  mud,  beyond  which  lazily  rolled  the  python- 
like tails  in  portentous  folds,  their  heads  and  fore- 
quarters  slowly  rose  into  the  air.  This  exposure 
made  us  quail  and  yet  exult,  with  an  excitement  no 
language  can  convey.  The  same  repulsive  coloring 
masked  them,  the  greenish-3'ellow  skin,  the  agi- 
tated and  red  blotches.  Higher  and  higher, 
mounted  the  snapping  jaws,  and  at  moments  the 
mucus  covered  eyes  emerged  with  a  baleful  glitter; 
the  long  neck  swayed  and  the  short  front  legs  beat 
the  air,  as  if  in  expostulation  at  delay.  The 
fascinating    thrill   of   horror  which   such   a   sight 


300  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

causes  can  be  understood;  only  the  painter  can 
justify  it. 

And,  sir,  they  were  fed — fed  with  corpses,  while 
the  infernal  cymbals  banged  on,  and  the  insignifi- 
cant people  wailed  their  "Lam-bo-oo,  Lam-bo-oo!'' 

The  bodies  were  naked  and  they  were  the  dead  of 
both  races;  the  gaping  jaws  caught  them  as  the 
sea  lion  catches  with  inerrant  skill  the  tossed  fish, 
that  no  sooner  reaches  the  expectant  jaws  than  it 
vanishes  with  a  hollow-sounding  gulp.  So  for  the 
most  part  did  these  small  bodies  go,  the  dilating 
necks  of  the  animals  marking  their  descent  to  the 
cavernous  abdomens.  A  few  vicious  twirls  maybe, 
a  shivering  hammering  together  of  the  jaws,  accom- 
panied at  times  with  a  dip  beneath  the  water,  send- 
ing muddy  waves  to  the  banks,  indicated  the  less 
easy  negotiation  of  the  larger  bodies. 

Revolted  and  overcome  by  the  pervading  half- 
sickening  stench — in  part  the  exhalations  from  the 
vile  saurians — we  turned  away.  As  we  went  back 
I  caught  a  full  view  of  the  little  dignitaries  in  their 
violet  gowns,  their  glittering  chains  and  their  bee- 
hive hats,  and  what  an  incongruous  contrast  it 
made.  In  their  frailness,  their  whiteness,  their 
chirping  volubility,  with  their  overmade  heads, 
their  tenuous  shanks  and  their  globed  eyes  they 
took  on,  to  me,  the  whimsical  likeness  to  delicately 
cut  and  animated  nitsukies  in  ivory,  dressed  like 
toys;  and  I  thought  too  their  enlarged  heads  might 
keep  company  with  their  compressed  hearts,  though 
certainly  we  could  not  say  yet,  and  religious  habits 
often  accompany  many  horrors,  much  bad  taste, 
and  a  lot  of  antiquated  humbug. 

We  got  away,  the  Professor  reluctantly.  He 
said  the  "mandibular  action"  merited  longer  obser- 
vation, and  Hopkins  inquired,  "I  wonder  how  the 
undertakers  of  Radiumopolis  relish  this  sort  of 
burial?     It  certainly  saves  the  mourner  consider- 


^^1v 


THE  POOL  OF  OBLATION 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  301 

able  in  flowers  and  gravestones,  but  I  don't  believe 
I  would  cotton  to  finding  my  ancestors  in  the  bones 
of  an  alligator.  It's  decidedly  composite  you 
know,  like  as  in  "The  Yarn  of  the  Nancy  Bell," 
when  the  man  who  had  eaten  a  good  deal  of  every- 
body, sang: 

"  'Oh,  I  am  the  cook  and  a  captain  bold, 
And  the  mate  of  the  Nancy  brig, 
And  a  bo's'n  tight,  and  a  midshipmite, 
And  the  crew  of  the  captain's  gig.'  " 

Long  after  we  had  regained  the  highway,  and 
were  on  our  solitary  way  to  the  city  we  could  hear 
the  smashing  cymlDals,  the  thudding  drums,  and 
the  dolorous  salutation  of  the — Well  WHAT? 
Worshippers.  Ugh !  But  we  did  meet  Oogalah  and 
he  was  in  dreadfully  low  spirits,  with  a  face  full  of 
misery,  wringing  his  hands  in  distress.  When  he 
saw  the  Professor  he  ran  up  to  him  and  stood  before 
him  in  a  woe-begone  way,  quite  incapable  of  ex- 
plaining his  grief.  Goritz  could  make  him  out 
fairly  well  and  he  asked  him  "What  is  the  matter? 
Sick?" 

"No!  No!  Oogalah  not  sick,  but  the  Big  Men 
have  thrown  his  dead  mother  to  the  Serpent!" 

Of  course  we  were  interested,  and  Goritz  extorted 
from  our  friend  an  astonishing  story.  Briefly,  it 
was  this.  Every  year  at  the  winter  solstice  (for 
later  we  found  that  these  people  possessed  a  calen- 
dar) a  ceremony  of  sacrifice  was  celebrated  at  the 
Pool  of  Oblation — so  I  named  it.  Formerly,  many, 
many  decades  before  this,  live  men  and  women 
had  been  thrown  to  the  carnivorous  saurians,  but 
that  had  been  altered  ("by  the  Progressives," 
Hopkins  suggested),  and  now  the  dead  only,  and 
not  more  than  a  dozen  or  so,  were  thrown  to  them; 
a  reduction  in  numbers  because  the  beasts  some- 


302  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

times  refused  some  of  them,  and  the  bodies  cor- 
rupted the  pool. 

Every  five  years  the  great  lustration  of  the  Forest 
Temples  took  place.  That  was  the  festival  whose 
beginning  and  termination  we  had  seen.  At  these 
times  the  whole  woodland  where  the  chosen  trees 
are  cleared — the  Tree  Temples — would  be  tra- 
versed, and  at  each  Tree  Temple  chants  would  be 
sung,  a  black  snake  left,  and  some  gold  offering 
attached  to  the  tree  itself.  Shorter  pilgrimages 
occurred  four  times  each  year.  The  snake  pasture 
was  kept  up  as  a  nursery  for  the  supply  of  the  wood 
temples,  for  the  snakes  did  not  long  survive  in  the 
pine  forest.  This  year  the  Great  Lustration  had 
been  unaccountably  delayed — Oogalah  did  not 
know  why,  but  he  had  heard  that  the  "Big  Men" 
("A  decided  catachresis,"  said  the  Professor,  "for 
they  literally  are  pygmies"),  were  very  angry  about 
something  (my  heart  jumped  with  a  sudden  fear 
when  Goritz  told  us  this). 

Oogalah's  mother  died  while  we  were  away  with 
him  in  the  radium  country,  and  the  Magistrates  of 
the  city,  who  saw  to  the  gathering  of  the  yearly 
hecatomb,  had  attached  her.  Deaths  were  not 
numerous,  it  appeared;  the  supply  of  corpses — 
adequate,  that  is,  for  a  satisfactory  oblation — was 
not  always  secured,  and  a  few  sheep  or  goats  made 
up  the  deficiency,  their  saurian  majesties  being  at 
the  same  time  importuned  not  to  resent  the  substi- 
tution. ("A  Radiumopolite,"  commented  Hopkins, 
"may  be  a  sweet  morsel,  but,  under  the  circum- 
stances, I  surely  would  prefer  mutton.") 

Oogalah  could  not  tell  us  much  about  the  "Ser- 
pent" (our  Crocodilo-Python),  or  his  worship.  He 
said  it  had  always  been  so,  and  that  the  "big 
ponds"  toward  the  south  were  full  of  them.  He 
had  traversed  these  once  on  a  raft,  and  apparently 
had  got  the  scare  of  his  life,  for  the  beasts  wobbled 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  303 

about  him  and,  except  for  an  inconvenient  satiety 
at  the  moment,  might  have  picked  him  and  his 
companions  off  Hke  crumbs  from  a  plate.  He  said 
too  that  it  was  in  the  savannahs,  morasses  and 
meadows  of  the  "southland"  that  the  food  for  the 
black  snakes  in  the  "serpent  pasture"  was  foraged. 
("A  typical  surviving  remnant,  doubtless,"  said 
the  Professor,  "of  Cretaceo-Juro-Triassic  scenery.") 

Oogalah's  communications  quite  restored  his 
peace  of  mind,  and  the  gift  of  a  pocket  knife 
from  Goritz  put  him  into  such  blissful  accep- 
tance of  his  domestic  bereavement,  that  the  theft 
of  two  or  three  dead  mothers  would  have  been 
thankfully  condoned  for  a  similar  exchange  in  the 
case  of  each. 

We  had  again  reached  the  city  but  in  darkness. 
The  clouds  had  thickened  in  an  impenetrable 
curtain  over  the  Stationary  Sun,  and  the  deepest 
gloom  had  settled  over  everything.  Forebodings 
filled  my  mind.  Superstitiously  watching  every 
symptom  of  nature  I  dreaded  the  effect  of  this 
eclipse  on  the  people,  and  their  cunning  little 
governors,  who  might  at  any  moment  change  their 
deferential  behavior  into  a  ruthless  malignancy. 
After  their  rite  of  propitiation  this  darkening  of  the 
sun  might  indicate  to  them  a  yet  unappeased  deity, 
for,  as  the  Professor  had  put  it,  the  "Serpent  and 
the  Sun  had  a  consentaneous  meaning  in  many  old 
mythologies."  Why  then  was  he  unappeased? 
The  Strangers  and  their  profanation  of  the  Shrines. 
I  always  returned  to  this  suspicion  with  dread.  A 
few  moments  later  my  worst  fears  were  confirmed. 

We  had  ascended  the  western  terrace  of  steps  and 
were  immediately  beneath  the  western  facade  of 
the  Capitol,  still  to  all  appearances  empty,  when  a 
flying  figure  met  us,  and  in  another  instant  the  arms 
of  Ziliah  were  about  Spruce  Hopkins'  neck,  and — 
my  conclusion  on  the  matter  can  scarcely  be  ques- 


304  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

tioned — his  were  probably  about  hers.  It  cer- 
tainly was  a  bad  case  of  nerves.  Ziliah  was  in  a 
sort  of  hysteria,  moaning  and  gasping  with  (so 
Hopkins  called  it)  a  ''strangle  hold"  on  his  "wind- 
pipe," that  also  quite  robbed  her  lover  of  the 
power  of  utterance.  I  intervened.  The  incident 
might  have  terminated  in  their  mutual  suffocation 
— so  it  seemed  to  me. 

The  fair  and  stricken  Ziliah  told  her  story. 

She  had  not  gone  to  the  Oblation.  No;  she  did 
not  like  it.  But  then  there  was  something  else. 
"Spooce"  was  in  danger,  her  own  "Spooce" — and 
all  of  us,  all.  The  governors  did  not  like  us;  they 
were  afraid  of  us,  afraid  we  might  bring  more — her 
father  was  as  bad  as  the  rest  of  them.  And  they 
had  found  out  something,  she  did  not  know  what, 
something  we  had  done.  We  were  enemies  of  the 
Serpent,  and — Ziliah's  agitation  at  this  juncture 
quite  robbed  her  narrative  of  coherency,  but  in  a 
lucid  interval  I  understood  her — we  were  to  be 
sacrificed;   we  would  be  fed  to  the  Serpent!!! 

"Zerubbabel  and  Heliopolis,"  shouted  Hopkins. 
"You  don't  mean  it?  Does  she  say  so?  Well  so 
help  me — if  we  don't  blow  the  pack  into  kingdom 
come — and  twice  as  far.  How  much  powder  have 
we  got  left?" 

"The  tubes,"   I  remonstrated. 

Hopkins  was  silent;  he  remembered  their  power, 
and  it  was  not  so  many  hours  since  something  of  the 
same  inscrutable  influence  had  nearly  brought  us 
all  to  the  verge  of  extinction. 

Never,  to  the  last  day  of  my  life,  Mr.  Link,  will 
I  comprehend  what  happened  then.  Was  it  the 
hand  of  God — or  was  it  telepathy.  WHAT? 
Ziliah  repeated  the  words  I  had  uttered — exactly. 
She  loosened  Hopkins'  embrace,  she  moved 
stealthily  towards  me,  I  saw  her  deep,  sweet  eyes 
raised  to  mine,  her  hands  closed  on  my  cheeks; 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  305 

the  boreal  dusk  light  that  comes  from  the  firma- 
ment even  when  clouded,  made  her  whole  face 
visible.  In  it  shone  a  strange  divination;  she 
repeated  the  words,  "/Ae  tubes,'"  and  then  sighed; 
seized  with  a  sudden  inspiration,  I  forced  my  mind 
upon  hers;  my  brain  contracted  (it  felt  so),  as  with 
a  fierce  concentration  of  will  I  projected  the  sense  of 
my  words  and  all  they  implied  upon,  in,  through, 
the  spirit  before  me — the  spirit  that  itself  leaped 
to  their  comprehension. 

She  crouched  slightly,  moved  away,  but  her  soft 
fingers  closed  around  my  hand,  and  she  drew  me 
towards  her. 

We  entered  the  broad  hall  of  the  Capitol, 
Ziliah  holding  me  tightly  and  leading  me.  We 
turned  into  a  passage-way.  At  its  dark  end  we 
stumbled  on  a  half  raised  arched  tile.  Ziliah 
raised  it,  and  seemed  sinking  below  me,  as  I  felt  her 
pull  me  down.  I  stooped  and  felt  the  edges  of  an 
opening.  My  wary  foot  detected  a  stairway. 
Together  we  descended  and  in  a  dozen  or  more 
steps  reached  the  floor  of  a  chamber  whose  walls 
seemed  only  a  few  feet  off  on  every  side  of  us. 
Ziliah  led  me  to  the  corner  of  this  room,  pushed 
upon  a  wooden  door  and  we  entered  what  proved  to 
be  a  much  larger  room.  Then  telling  me  to  wait, 
my  guide  left  me.  Another  instant  and  a  soft 
radiance  filled  the  place.  It  came  from  a  radium 
lamp  which  Ziliah  had  uncovered.  She  pointed  to 
a  table  in  the  center  of  this  apartment.  On  it  lay  a 
metal  box — a  leaden  trunk.  Ziliah  raised  its  lid. 
I  leaped  forward.     I  already  knew  what  to  expect. 

In  the  bottom  of  the  box  lay,  neatly  aligned  in 
rows,  thirty  leaden  tubes,  one  probably  for  each  of 
the  governors.  Here  at  last  in  our  power,  our 
possession,  were  the  murderous  little  vials.  But 
were  they  charged  with  their  life-arresting  power? 
And  how  to  use  them?     I  stood  perplexed,  and 


306  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Ziliah  remained  motionless  by  me  gazing  at  me  with 
a  mute  happiness,  as  she  realized  she  had  attained 
my  wishes.  But  it  was  plain  that  the  dear  creature 
knew  nothing  about  them.  No — the  clever  little 
doctors  were  not  such  fools  as  to  popularize  their 
peculiar  knowledge,  and  the  dark  beauty,  tears  yet 
bepearling  her  long  lashes,  was  just  a  child  before 
them,  as  I  was.  But  why  had  they  left  them  here 
at  all?  They  must  have  been  deposited  after  the 
return,  for  the  doctors  indubitably  had  worn  them 
in  their  girdles  when  we  so  inauspiciously  dropped 
onto  the  road  in  the  pine  forest.  Did  they  have  a 
duplicate  set?   The  thought  unnerved  me. 

Now  not  the  least  remarkable  circumstance  in 
this  startling  episode  was  that  I  had  not  talked  to 
Ziliah  at  all,  though  we  understood  each  other. 
Telepathy,  or  sympathy,  or  suggestion,  had  done 
its  perfect  work  so  far;  not  a  word  had  passed 
between  us,  but  at  this  obstructive  ignorance 
staring  me,  so  to  speak,  in  the  face  I  opened  my 
mouth. 

"Ziliah  are  these  all?" 

"ALL,"  came  the  answer  very  quietly,  but  with  a 
frankness  and  certainty  that  assured  me. 

"Do  you  know  anything  about  them  Ziliah? 
How  they  work?" 

Ziliah  knew  nothing.  "The  — ,"  I  understood  her 
to  mean  the  doctors,  including  her  precious  father, 
"will  kill  you  all — Ah!  Spooce,  too.  No!  No! 
Take  them  away,"  pointing  to  the  chest,  "AWAY 
—AWAY." 

The  girl's  nerves  were  reasserting  themselves; 
time  was  running  away  too,  my  friends  were 
deserted,  and  detection  was  imminent  at  any 
moment.  Another  glance  at  the  desperate  little 
instruments,  and  then — nolens,  volens — I  picked 
them  up  and  pushed  them  under  my  tunic,  so  that 
I  felt  their  cold  surfaces  chilling  my  skin. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  307 

Then  I  shook  ZiHah  and  pointed  to  the  door, 
closing  the  lid  of  the  chest.  She  understood.  Our 
way  back  was  as  noiseless  as  our  entrance  had  been. 
Unless  our  footprints  remained  as  silent  betrayers 
of  our  robbery,  there  was  no  reason  for  suspicion, 
no  proof  of  our  misdeeds.  Misdeed  indeed;  it 
was  our  SALVATION. 

In  five  minutes  I  was  back  with  m.y  friends,  and 
Ziliah,  reaching  the  limit  of  her  endurance  com- 
fortably fled  to  her  familiar  refuge — Hopkins'  arms. 

Now  you  may  ask  incredulously — Why  did  you 
not  in  the  first  place  ask  Ziliah  where  were  the 
tubes;  why  impair  the  credibility  of  your  story  by 
injecting  this  transcendental  nonsense  about — 
telepathy. 

I  don't  know,  sir;  the  facts  are  just  as  I  have 
related  them. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Love  and  Liberty 

We  soon  heard  the  swarming  crowds  returning, 
and  before  long  saw  the  flat  wagons,  with  the  strain- 
ing goats  drawing  them,  and  softly  luminous  from 
the  radium  bulbs  held  in  wickerwork  cages,  and  on 
them  the  governors,  much  agitated  and  confused. 
It  was  really  a  rout.  Panic  had  seized  the  people, 
the  guards  were  in  disorder,  and  they  failed  to  repel 
the  surging  masses  that  rolled  up  against  the  rock- 
ing chariots.  It  was  a  straggling,  in  some  sections 
a  struggling,  cortege,  and  the  dominant  purpose 
was  to  get  under  cover,  for  the  blackness  deepened, 
the  very  last  glimpses  of  light  had  vanished,  and  a 
night  of  storm  and  wind  with  a  cold  rain  had 
blotted  out  the  smiling  peacefulness  of  Radium- 
opolis. 

Fortunately,  the  construction  of  the  houses  was 
excellent  and,  except  as  the  wind  drove  rain 
through  or  past  the  crevices  of  the  board  or  leathern 
insertions,  their  interiors  were  probably  quite  dry 
in  storms.  The  rooms  at  the  Capitol  were  com- 
pletely so. 

And  now  the  running  groups,  the  populace,  the 
guards,  officials  hastening  variously  on  their  many 
ways  could  be  heard  tramping  and  surging  along, 
with  only  occasional  ejaculations  of  impatience  or 
alarm,  but  all  in  an  evident  race  and  retreat. 

I  did  not  wait  long  with  my  friends.     I   knew 

308 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  309 

Ziliah  was  with  them — with  one.  I  clutched  my 
intolerable  load  closer,  I  sprang  to  the  eastern 
terrace,  now  deserted,  and  rushed  down,  suddenly- 
seized  with  the  thought  of  destroying  the  infernal 
machines  I  carried.  It  was  a  great  loss  to  science 
no  doubt,  but  at  the  moment  I  felt  convinced  that 
once  these  preposterous  weapons  were  lost  to  the 
little  doctors,  we  were  safe.  I  cried  in  my  heart, 
"Our  guns  against  everything." 

So  on  I  flew,  and  straight  out  into  the  serpent 
pasture,  now  and  again  slipping  on  some  coiled  or 
gliding  snake  to  where  I  knew  that  well  hole  lay 
which  marked  the  departing  kick  of  the  celestial 
visitor  who  had  taught  Radiumopolis  the  trick  of 
making  gold.  It  was  a  deep  hole  and  it  was  full  of 
water.  I  reached  it.  I  opened  my  tunic  and  from 
it  the  bundle  of  pestiferous  little  arsenals  of  magic 
tumbled,  and  splashed  in  the  water — and  were 
gone.  The  pack  that  fell  off  Christian's  back  and 
rolled  backward  into  the  sepulchre  could  not  have 
been  gotten  rid  of  with  more  satisfaction  to  that 
tired  pilgrim  than  I  freed  myself  of  those  hateful 
little  tubes.  Of  course  afterwards  the  Professor 
was  dreadfully  upset  about  it.  He  deplored  the 
''loss  to  science."  "Perhaps,"  retorted  Hopkins, 
"but — we  count  too." 

I  soon  returned  to  the  others  and  found  them — 
minus  Ziliah,  who  had  been  persuaded  to  retire  to 
her  boudoir — nestling  against  the  corner  of  the 
Capitol  where  there  was  less  wind  and  rain, 
enjoying  the  home  gathering  of  the  Sanhedrim, 
its  wives  and  children,  relatives,  attendants,  and 
the  police. 

"My!"  gurgled  Hopkins  under  his  breath,  "such 
a  coop  of  hens!  And  the  cackling!  What's  hard  to 
understand  is  how  such  poultry  govern  this  land, 
and  how  they  have  the  nerve  to  keep  up  this 
detestable  religion  with  its  snakes  and  its  croco- 


310  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

diles;  and  yet — blame — me — they  certainly  are  on 
the  inside  of  a  good  many  things,  and  they  surely 
are  on  a  Gold  Basis,  and  some  of  our  best  people 
wouldn't  mind  swapping  all  they  know,  for  just 
that  one  particular  bit  of  information  which  will 
turn  a  leaden  pot  into  a  gold  one." 

"We  must  know  how,  too,"  grumbled  Goritz. 

"Well,"  continued  Hopkins,  "say  the  word  and 
we'll  revolutionize  this  country,  get  into  the 
governmertt,  and  run  the  mint." 

I  w^as  getting  impatient  with  this  nonsense,  and 
I  said,  "Now  see  here  my  friends,  we  are  four  men 
against  thousands — why  talk  such  rubbish?  We're 
all  in  danger  because  of  our  imprudence  but  I  think 
we  can  steer  away  safely  though  our  difficulties, 
get  the  confidence  of  everyone — perhaps  more,  and 
come  out,  as  you  might  say  Spruce,  on  the  Top  of 
the  Heap.  Ziliah  knows  what  she  is  talking  about 
and  she  says  we're  to  be  put  out  of  the  way.  But 
that  perhaps  won't  be  so  easy  now.  I've  stolen 
the  tubes  and  buried  them  out  of  sight  forever.^' 

The  three  men  sprang  around  me  and  seized  me 
with  one  exclamation:    "No!" 

"Yes  I  have — they're  gone.  Come  to  our  rooms 
and  I'll  tell  you  everything.  We  must  use  diplo- 
macy, but  if  they  push  us  to  the  wall  there  are  our 
guns.  The  people  are  accustomed  to  us  and  are 
indifferent.  Those  little  doctors  never  will  let  us 
get  out  alive  if  they  can  help  it.  There's  more  than 
our  lives  at  stake;  there's  the  revelation  we  shall 
give  to  the  great  world  outside  of  this  polar  hole — 
about  these  strange  people,  their  achievements, 
their  knowledge,  above  all  about  that  radium  mass 
which  may  change  all  the  civilization  we  are 
acquainted  with  into  something  quite  different.  I 
do  not  agree  with  Goritz,  though  I  can  sympathize 
with  his  appeal.  Science  must  know  of  this  place, 
and  what  is  here.     Science,  I  say,  MUST  KNOW." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  311 

In  a  few  words  I  explained  what  had  happened, 
when  we  had  gotten  to  our  rooms,  which  still 
remained  undisturbed.  I  told  them  of  the  curious 
suggestive  influence  on  Ziliah  (Hopkins  said  he 
"didn't  like  it"),  how  we  penetrated  the  subterra- 
nean room,  how  I  found  and  seized  those  menacing 
little  vials,  and  how  I  despatched  every  one  of  them 
into  the  fathomless  mud  and  water  (the  Professor 
compared  it  with  "the  crime  of  the  Caliph  Omar 
who  burned  the  Alexandrian  Library"),  and  how 
now,  with  Ziliah  as  an  ally,  and  with  our  guns,  we 
might  turn  the  tables  on  the  discomfited  doctors. 
"Guess  you've  taken  the  sting  out  of  their  tails — 
the  little  wasps,"  exclaimed  Hopkins. 

We  did  not  have  to  wait  long  for  developments. 
The  storm  passed,  the  light  returned  and  it  was 
much  colder.  Warmer  clothing  was  given  us,  and 
our  meals  were  even  more  liberal.  This  excessive 
hospitality  made  me  suspicious  and  I  insisted  that 
the  bearers  of  the  cakes  and  bread,  the  wine  and 
milk,  the  meat  and  vegetables  should  partake  of  a 
little  of  each,  before  us,  and  this  I  ingeniously 
explained  to  them  was  the  custom  of  our  native 
countries.  They  never  hesitated,  and  the  courtesy, 
as  they  understood  it,  quite  delighted  and  pro- 
pitiated them.  This  too  was  a  part  of  my  rule. 
I  intended  to  conciliate  them  so  thoroughly  that  I 
might  be  able  to  make  them  spies  on  our  enemies — 
''pump  'gm,"  said  Hopkins.  Ziliah  watched  dili- 
gently; the  beloved  Spooce  was  an  invaluable 
hostage. 

Our  liberty  was  not  interfered  with,  it  seemed 
extended,  and  the  Professor  kept  up  his  unremitting 
labors  in  making  notes  for  the  voluminous  papers 
he  was  contemplating,  and  which  he  idolatrously 
regarded  as  his  possible  monument  in  the  files  of 
time.  Goritz  became  a  confirmed  pilferer,  and  his 
stock  of  gold  objects,  whittlings  and  fragments  grew 


312  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

dangerously.  I  remonstrated,  but  he  kept  at  it. 
I  could  not  get  the  wizened  little  doctors  to  talk. 
I  addressed  them  as  I  met  them  in  the  palace  in 
the  Hebrew  patois  I  had  acquired,  and  which  I  was 
convinced  they  understood.  But  no — not  a  word; 
a  bow,  those  wrinkling  smiles,  that  deferential 
obeisance,  and  the  palms  of  their  hands  rubbed 
together  meditatively,  while  the  prodigious  eyes 
watched  me,  I  thought,  with  an  unmistakable 
malice,  and — with  FEAR. 

We  seldom  saw  the  ladies  of  their  households 
which,  as  Hopkins  expressed  it,  "considering  our 
extreme  manly  beauty,  as  compared  with  the  ALL 
IN  look  of  their  own  matrimonial  boobs,  is  a  reflec- 
tion on  their  good  taste,  a  proof  of  their  imperfect 
education.  Everybody  else  likes  us,"  he  said. 
And  that  was  true.  We  met  with  the  most 
amiable  reception,  and  Goritz's  skill  in  talking  with 
the  Eskimos,  and  my  astounding  success  with  the 
Hebrew  lingo  was  giving  us  a  vogue  that  it  seemed 
unreasonable  the  little  rulers  did  not  see  was 
ruinous  to  their  prestige.  Could  it  be  possible  that 
they  were  afraid  of  us — afraid  of  our  popularity? 
I  thought  that  they  would  avail  themselves  of  the 
discovered  thefts  of  the  tree  shrines  and  of  the 
unpropitious  storm,  on  the  day  of  the  Oblation,  to 
turn  the  populace  against  us  as  personae  non  gratae 
to  their  deity. 

But  they  had  not,  and  the  storm  was  forgotten. 
It  was  bewildering,  for  I  felt  sure  Ziliah  was  not 
deceiving  me,  and  that  our  lives  somehow  were  at 
stake.  Perhaps — perhaps — in  that  curious  compli- 
cated psychology  of  their  dwarfed  natures,  coward- 
ice, deceit,  sharpness,  superstition,  ferocity  even, 
were  so  mixed  up  with  an  enervating  feebleness  of 
mind,  in  spite  of  their  astuteness,  that  it  made 
them,  as  Lady  Macbeth  puts  it,  "infirm  of 
purpose." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  313 

At  any  rate  we  would  watch  our  guns,  in  all 
senses,  and  we  literally  did  watch  those  we  owned, 
carrying  them  with  us,  always  strapped  to  our 
backs,  our  cartridge  belts  at  our  waists,  and  a  part 
of  our  dress.     I  think  this  alarmed  our  spies  a  little. 

But  now  the  crux  of  the  whole  situation  came  to 
light.  Two  things  had  happened  and  both  of 
these  were  known  to  Ziliah.  Ziliah  was  splendid — 
the  "best  ever"  said  Spruce — -"true  down  to  her 
little  toe  bone;  she  turned  down  her  own  dad  and 
turned  ag'in  the  Government  rather  than  see  us 
licked.  Tell  you  what,  Alfred,  I'll  take  my  chances 
with  her,  and — it's  good-bye  to  the  States." 

It  was  this  way.  And  to  begin  with,  Ziliah's 
father's  first  name  was  Javan,  and,  because  the 
coincidence  is  so  extraordinary,  the  names  of  those 
little  governors,  and  there  were  thirty  of  them,  are 
worth  repeating,  because  again — as  the  Professor 
was  the  first  to  observe — they  can  all  be  found  in 
the  first  Chapter  of  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  in  our 
Bible.  This  is  the  list:  Riphath,  Kittim,  Put, 
Cush,  Pathrusim,  Lud,  Hul,  Joktan,  Peleg,  Hadad, 
Naphish,  Jeush,  Jaalam,  Shammah,  Shobal,  Ho- 
man,  Uz,  Samlah,  Bela,  Zephi,  Zyrah,  Ebal, 
Manahath,  Anah,  Amram,  Mibsam,  Gomer,  Magog 
Anamim,  Ludim. 

I  took  these  down  carefully  from  Ziliah,  by  word 
of  mouth,  and  they  confirmed  all  we  had  inferred 
of  Semitic  relations  but  when  later — much  later 
sir,  on  my  return  to  America — I  made  the  compari- 
son, as  the  Professor  suggested,  I  was  dumb- 
founded. But  I  will  not  stop  now  to  elaborate 
reflections.  My  story  has  already  lengthened 
beyond  my  expectations,  and  there  is  much  to 
recount. 

Two  things  had  happened,  I  have  said.  Oh,  by 
the  way,  Mr.  Link,  I  might  insert  this  here — Javan, 
Ziliah's  father,  encouraged  his  daughter's  intimacy 


314  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

with  Hopkins;  he  thought  it  would  lead  to  some- 
thing. It  did.  As  Hopkins  put  it,  "it  was  the 
Guy  who  put  the  eat  in  Beat  it." 

The  two  things  were — the  theft  of  the  tubes  had 
been  discovered,  and  there  had  been  a  Council  held 
— a  ''pow-wow''  according  to  Spruce,  in  which 
Javan  threw  a  bomb  into  the  deliberations  for 
our  destruction  because  he  connected  what  he 
had  to  say  at  the  "pow-wow"  wuth  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  little  wizard  wands.  A  wonderful 
denouement  was  at  hand.  It  all  came  about  as 
follows : 

The  excursion  through  the  pine  tree  shrines 
showed  a  considerable  damage,  and  the  inspectors 
were  sure  the  mischief  had  been  perpetrated  by  us. 
Our  tracks  were  unmistakable;  they  found  our 
camps,  and  they  noted  that  the  pillaging  had  been 
done,  as  it  were,  yesterday.  Their  indignation  was 
great,  but,  as  the  detection  of  the  outrage  was 
actually  unnoticed  by  the  multitude,  and  had  only 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  little  doctors — the 
Sanhedrim  as  we  had  called  them — and  had  not 
then  been  seriously  considered  at  first,  except  by  a 
few  leaders — apparently  the  older  and  shrewder 
men.  Put  and  Hul,  Peleg,  Hadad  and  Javan,  him- 
self, the  President — it  was  concluded  to  keep  still 
about  it,  and  that  nothing  should  be  done  until 
they  had  returned.  But  the  outrage,  as  they  con- 
sidered it,  made  them  rather  anxious  as  to  the  state 
of  mind  of  the  insulted  serpent  and  tree  deities — 
the  numina  of  their  unseen  world.  Propitiation 
was  in  order,  and  they  had  taken  pains  to  visit  all 
the  shrines,  repair  the  mischief,  attach  new  offer- 
ings, sing  and  dance  and  pray,  and  go  through  a 
snake  ceremonial  with  the  doctors  as  masters  of  the 
ceremony,  as  indeed  these  odd  creatures  were  really 
priests  to  the  nation. 

They  talked  a  great  deal  about  it  among  them- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  315 

selves,  but  they  were  dreadfully  bothered  by 
Javan's  scruples  as  to  touching  us,  and  all  because 
he  recalled  an  ancient  prophecy  of  a  fall  from  the 
clouds  of  a  beggar-like  man,  who  would  not  know 
their  language,  and  who  would  bring  them  a  new 
wisdom,  and  who  would  be  their  King. 

Now  it  seems  this  ancient  prophecy  was  in  their 
archives,  as  you  might  say,  and  action  in  our  case 
was  to  be  delayed  until  its  exact  portents  or  con- 
tents were  ascertained.  There  were  queer  coinci- 
dences in  the  matter.  Our  descent  from  the  top  of 
the  pine  tree,  albeit  awkward  and  a  little  unseemly, 
was  a  good  deal  like  a  drop  from  the  clouds.  It 
seemed  so  to  them.  Our  beggarly  condition  was 
really  shamefully  clear.  Then  we  did  not  speak 
their  language,  and  as  to  the  new  wisdom,  the 
Professor's  harangue  rather  filled  the  bill  there,  and, 
in  spite  of  themselves,  his  red  hair  had  impressed 
them,  as  it  did  everybody  else. 

Certainly  there  were  or  might  be  discrepancies. 
There  were  four  of  us  for  instance;  we  had  been  in 
the  wood  some  time — desecrating  it  too,  a  profana- 
tion inconceivable  in  a  future  King — a  heaven-sent 
King!  These  considerations  cheered  them  greatly, 
for  really  the  little  fellows  did  not  wish  to  abdicate. 
So  they  mulled  these  things  over  and  fixed  their 
plans  very  craftily.  They'd  get  back,  ignore  us, 
seem  to  forget  all  about  us,  hunt  up  the  precious 
document,  and,  if  they  came  to  the  conclusion  to 
''do  us,"  as  Hopkins  said,  the  affair  would  be  kept 
very  secret,  and — their  white  fingers  clasped  the 
ominous  tubes  as  they  raised  them  significantly 
over  their  big  heads — they  wouldn't  be  long  about  it 
either. 

At  the  return  to  Radiumopolis  Javan  heard  from 
Ziliah's  own  lips — very  soon,  I  suppose,  after  she 
lifted  him  up  in  her  arms  on  the  terrace  steps — what 
a  dreadful  state  her  heart  was  in  over  Spooce,  and 


316  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Javan  ("perfidious  dad,"  Hopkins  called  him) 
simpered,  sniggered,  and  encouraged  her  attach- 
ment. But  Ziliah  possessed  some  feminine  acute- 
ness — "No  piker,  she,''  declared  Hopkins — and  she 
was  not  many  minutes  in  finding  out  the  true 
position  of  affairs;  viz.,  the  enmity  of  the  Direc- 
torate, the  existing  government,  for  us.  She  was 
in  an  agony  of  fear,  and,  aflame  with  her  love,  she 
had  met  us  and  told  me  of  our  danger.  Then,  sir, 
as  you  may  incredulously  recall,  I  did  that  tele- 
pathic act,  and  cleared  away  the  most  formidable 
obstacle  in  our  way. 

From  that  moment  Ziliah  was  ours,  every  heart 
beat,  every  brain  pulse  was  for  us.  She  certainly 
played  her  father,  but  we  had  no  intentions  against 
his  life,  and  it  was  just  simply  immolation  for  us  all 
in  his  case,  as  the  coterie  would  have  sent  us  on  the 
long  road  in  a  hurry,  and  then  all  this  strange  tale 
would  never  have  entranced  your  ears.  Ziliah,  as 
the  verdict  of  the  world  will  pronounce,  chose  the 
better  part.  Her  devotion  led  us  into  the  light  of 
deliverance. 

The  old  record  of  the  prophecy  was  brought  to 
light.  It  actually  was  engraved  on  a  gold  tablet. 
That  showed,  sir,  that  the  knowledge  of  transmu- 
tation was  over  a  hundred  years  old  in  Krocker 
Land,  for,  as  you  will  learn,  there  is  no  mining  for 
gold  in  Krocker  Land ;  that  mother  lode  which  the 
Professor  predicted,  as  far  as  we  know  is  a  dream 
only.  All  the  gold  in  Krocker  Land  comes  from 
Radium  Transmutation. 

Ziliah  saw  the  tablet,  she  heard  it  read;  for  that 
matter  she  read  it  herself  ("A  twentieth  century 
woman  and  no  mistake,"  was  Hopkins'  tribute  to 
her  sagacity),  and  now  what  I  tell  you,  sir,  will 
hardly  be  believed.  It  has  such  a  fabulous  fairy-like 
sound. 

The  prophecy  read  thus :     The  future  King  would 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  317 

fall  from  the  sky,  in  the  shape  of  a  man  dressed  in 
rags,  with  hair  red  like  blood,  with  a  strange 
language  on  his  tongue,  and  "he  KILLS  with 
THUNDER." 

That,  sir,  brought  our  guns  and  the  Professor  into 
the  drama,  and  swept  the  stakes  into  our  hands. 
You  shall  see. 

The  prophecy  did  mightily  disturb  the  council. 
They  convened  in  their  state  chamber,  and  argued 
it  out  circumstantially,  and  Ziliah,  conveniently 
disposed  for  the  revelations  to  be  expected,  listened. 
The  upshot  of  their  deliberations  was  that  there 
was  much  difference  of  opinion,  with  a  preponder- 
ant feeling  that  the  Professor  was  a  dangerous 
probability.  Had  we  fallen  from  the  sky,  or  just 
dropped  out  of  the  branches  of  the  tree,  and,  if  that 
was  our  first  appearance  how  about  the  thefts? 
Yes — yes — the  thefts,  and  the  traces  of  our  pre- 
vious camps,  and  then  the  killing  with  thunder? 
There  was  some  ill-natured  derisive  and  weak 
giggling  over  this.     Thunder  indeed! 

The  upshot  of  it  all  was  that  Javan  was  deputed 
to  keep  an  eye  on  us,  and  probably  the  best  thing 
to  do,  taking  a  strictly  conservative  view  of  the 
matter  was  to —  Ziliah  didn't  catch  this,  but  when 
I  told  her  Hopkins,  he  winked  assertively  and  drew 
the  forefinger  of  his  ring  hand  across  his  throat,  and 
said  nothing. 

Anyhow  the  little  elders  came  out  from  the  con- 
ference, looking  greatly  satisfied,  very  benignant, 
and  were  happily  garrulous.  But  the  second  event 
was  the  discovery  of  the  disappearance  of  the 
tubes.  It  seemed  that  some  recuperative  effect 
was  sought  for  in  thus  storing  them  in  the 
metallic  box  in  the  subterranean  chamber,  but 
— WHAT?  And  whether  other  agents  were 
present  in  the  box  will  never  be  known,  as 
indeed  the  mystery  of  those  tubes  is  itself  a  closed 


318  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

chapter,  unless  forsooth  the  Professor  eHcits  the 
information  as  to  their  fabrication,  by  reason  of  his 
present  control  of  the  scientific  resources —  But 
pardon  me,  I  anticipate. 

The  tubes  had  been  placed  in  the  chest  almost 
instantly  after  the  re-entrance  of  the  cortege  into 
the  Capitol.  A  literal  translation  of  Ziliah's 
remark  as  to  the  need  of  this  would  be  that  they 
were  "dying  out.'' 

You  can  imagine  Javan's  despair,  consternation, 
and  amazement.  Apparently  there  were  no  more 
of  these  stupifying  inventions  handy,  and  the  San- 
hedrim were  really  at  their  wits'  end.  At  this 
juncture  Ziliah  became  a  perfect  demon  of  sugges- 
tion. Hopkins'  enthusiastic  submission  to  her 
charms  inflamed  her  with  a  sprightliness  of  mind 
that  kept  us  busy  too,  and  won  our  case.  Ziliah 
knew  that  the  citizens  of  Radiumopolis,  which 
practically  was  Krocker  Land,  the  outlying  agricul- 
tural sections  being  little  else  than  a  diaspora  of 
Radiumopolis  itself,  were  not  so  loyally  disposed 
towards  the  exclusive  Areopagus  on  Capitol  Hill, 
and  that  some  shock  of  wonderment  that  might 
establish  our  supernatural  origin  would  solve  the 
impasse,  and  give  us  the  upper  hand,  for  literally 
there  was  now  no  way  out  of  the  dilemma  but  for 
us  to  RULE. 

Ziliah  conceived  the  idea  of  our  subverting  the 
reigning  government  as  quickly  as  we  had  reached 
the  same  conclusion,  and  Hopkins  was  not  slow  to 
sharpen  her  perceptions.  But  she  formed  the  plan 
of  our  coup  d'etat.  We  had  thought  (and  the 
Professor  was  as  deeply  implicated  as  any  of 
us,  he  realized  our  plight  and  for  once  worldly 
aims  gripped  and  diverted  his  mind)  to  make  a 
public  appeal  to  the  people  or  else  insidiously 
foment  discontent,  lead  an  attack  on  the  now 
defenceless    governors,    seize    the    throne,     as    it 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  319 

were,  and  establish  the  dynasty  of  Hlmath  Bjornsen 
the  First. 

At  first  blush  the  Professor  seemed  greatly 
puzzled  and  unwilling,  and  his  bulging  eyes  stared 
at  us  with  blank  misgivings.  But  when  the  rigor  of 
our  situation  was  forced  upon  him,  with  the  com- 
pelling suadente  potestas  of  his  red  hair,  and  its 
felicitous  conjunction  with  aboriginal  prophecy,  he 
worked  himself  into  a  real  glee  over  it  that  was 
delightful.  To  Hopkins  there  was  something  so 
macaronic  and  side-splitting  about  this  role  of  the 
Professor's,  that  he  could  scarcely  look  at  his  half 
rueful,  absorbed  expression,  his  odd  mouth,  the 
prodigious  ears,  and  the  coronal  splendor  of  his 
hair,  without  being  overcome  with  a  badly  con- 
cealed merriment  that  might  have  turned  our 
plans  awry  with  anyone  less  essentially  good- 
natured  than  the. Professor. 

Of  course  we  improved  our  popularity,  and  we 
put  the  Professor  through  ambulatory  excursions 
that  must  have  tired  his  legs.  From  the  first  the 
people  had  "cottoned"  to  him  {fide  Hopkins),  and 
we  wanted  them  to  become  intimate  with  their 
future  KING.  Certainly  it  seemed  like  a  huge 
joke. 

Ever>'thing  was  coming  our  way.  The  governors 
had  actually  become  afraid  of  us.  We  were  no 
longer  confined  to  the  Capitol.  We  fascinated  our 
guards  by  giving  them  all  the  trinkets  we  could  find 
about  us,  and  Goritz  and  I  talked  constantly 
with  the  people.  The  Sanhedrim  might  have 
turned  the  people  against  us  by  revealing  our  thefts, 
but  somehow  they  did  not  try  it.  They  did  not 
even  enter  our  rooms  for  proof.  I  think  we  began 
to  despise  them.  They  had  a  secretive,  feeble  way 
that  too  plainly  advertised  their  impotence.  It 
was  evident  indeed  that  some  fatal  collapse  in  their 
authority  was  imminent,  and  they  did  not  have  the 


320  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

miraculous  tubes  to  reinstate  themselves.  Nothing 
could  have  withstood  them  then.  Between  the 
prophecy  and  the  loss  of  the  tubes  they  were  des- 
perate.    Our  sedition  prospered  in  the  meanwhile. 

Suddenly  it  occurred  to  me  that  their  apathy  and 
shrinking  avoidance  of  a  collision  meant  mischief. 
It  might  be  ominous.  Were  they — the  thought 
transfixed  me  with  horror — were  they  secretly  at 
work  repairing  their  loss,  MAKING  OTHER 
TUBES?  Of  course  they  were ;  in  the  light  of  this 
suggestion  their  apparent  timidity  was  explained. 
It  was  not  timidity.  Nay,  it  was  just  a  delicate, 
artful  duplicity  that  was  fooling  us.  Ziliah  must 
find  out  and  then  one  way  or  another  we  must  test 
the  situation.  Of  course  the  prophecy  that  Ziliah 
had  recounted  to  us  was  constantly  the  keynote  of 
our  plans.  To  lose  our  chance  now  would  be  mad- 
ness. 

And  Ziliah?  She  wheedled  Javan  and  Put,  and 
Cush,  and  Hul,  and  the  rest  successfully.  They 
thought  she  was  keeping  us  quiet,  and  they  thought 
too  their  own  inofTensiveness  was  blinding  us.  Ah 
ha!  //  was — while  they  contrived  their  devilish 
weapons  anew.  They  had  made  no  outcry  when 
they  found  them  gone.  That  might  have  liberated 
the  people  of  their  fear  for  themselves.  But  was 
Ziliah  possibly  playing  us  false?  There  was  or 
certainly  had  been  a  countermine  at  work  and  she 
had  failed  to  detect  it.  These  foxy  patriarchs  were 
fooling  our  own  spy  in  their  camp,  or  again — was 
Ziliah  false? 

Well  sir,  Ziliah  was  "straight  as  a  string  and  true 
as  gold,"  to  quote  Hopkins.  She  knew  nothing 
about  the  making  of  the  new  tubes,  but  she  would 
find  out.  Her  terror  over  this  new  turn  in  the 
affair  was  greater  than  our  own,  her  surprise  too. 
Ah,  sir,  she  knew  what  those  tubes  meant,  what 
they  could  do! 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  321 

She  soon  returned  to  me — it  was  easy  enough, 
and  it  was  easy  to  do  it  unnoticed.  Javan  trusted 
her  implicitly,  and  indeed  she  and  I  had  been  some- 
what hoodwinked  by  him.  Ziliah  confirmed  my 
suspicions.  The  new  tubes  were  indeed  under 
way.  The  eukairia,  the  "nick  of  time,"  had  come. 
We  must  strike.  Then  it  was  that  Ziliah  told  us 
HOW. 

We  were  to  take  on  the  grand  air,  assert  our 
provenance  from  Heaven,  repeat  the  prophecy  from 
the  tablet,  call  the  Professor  Shamlah,  and  threaten 
destruction  if  the  Sanhedrim  did  not  receive  us  at 
once,  see  that  our  thunder  bolts  were  ready,  and 
use  them.  The  message,  to  be  taken  by  Ziliah, 
would  admit  that  our  manners  had  been  humble 
and  that  Shamlah  had  concealed  his  mission.  But 
delay  would  be  cut  short.  The  time  for  his  royal 
assumption  was  at  hand.  We  would  come  to  them 
with  our  thunder  tubes  and  talk  with  them;  and 
if  our  overture  was  rejected  we  would  go  to  the 
people  and  show  our  power. 

That  was  our  ultimatum;  batteries  on  both 
sides  were  now  unmasked  and  the  issue  defined. 
What  we  needed  just  then  were  theatrical  proper- 
ties, some  chromatic  detonating  explosions,  fire- 
works, skyrockets,  roman  candles,  flower-pots, 
fire-fizzes  of  any  sort  that  would  give  us  a  super- 
natural flavor.  As  Hopkins  said,  just  one  night's 
Coney  Island  Payne's  Fireworks  outfit,  and  what 
wasn't  ours  in  the  joint,  wouldn't  be  worth  having. 
But — we  had  only  our  guns.  That  however  was  a 
good  deal. 

Ziliah  returned  the  answer  of  the  Conventicle. 
They  would  not  see  us  just  now,  later,  perhaps  in 
fourteen  settas,  which  meant,  in  our  time,  about  a 
week.  Oh  ho!  That  was  the  limit  of  our  sufTerance. 
In  a  week  they  would  meet  us  on  their  own  terms. 
The  crisis  had  come. 


322  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

It  was  not  half  an  hour  later  that  Goritz,  Hop- 
kins, the  Professor  and  myself,  as  faultlessly  attired 
as  our  wardrobe  and  toilet  facilities  permitted, 
marched  from  our  abode  in  the  city,  down  the  great 
highway.  Our  guns  were  in  our  arms,  clasped 
tightly  to  our  chests,  and  all  the  ammunition  we 
possessed  was  loaded  in  our  cartridge  belts  and 
pockets.  We  were  instantly  noticed  and  numer- 
ously attended.  We  entered  the  serpent  pasture, 
at  the  eastern  end,  and  walked  to  the  eastern 
terrace  of  steps,  and  up  these  to  the  courtyard 
above.  We  were  seen.  Men  and  women,  girls 
and  boys,  in  a  desultory  manner  at  first,  then  in 
hastening  groups,  emerged  from  the  Capitol  and, 
among  them  a  few  of  the  little  rulers.  The  rumor 
of  attack  spread. 

From  the  houses  of  the  city,  its  looms  and  barns, 
the  workshops  and  bakeries,  its  gardens,  the  cloth 
manufactories,  the  metal  shops,  the  curious  small 
people  gathered,  and  with  them  the  larger  race  from 
near  and  far,  while  the  idle  and  loafing  contingent, 
always  large  and  drifting  instinctively  towards 
every  new  incident,  hastened  in  mirthful  or  expec- 
tant groups,  pouring  along  behind  us.  Each  fresh 
accession  stimulated  a  wider  circle  of  attention, 
until  it  almost  seemed  as  if  the  populace  were 
following  us  en  masse.  They  overflowed  the  road, 
they  dispersed  over  the  meadow  land  appropriated 
to  snakes,  they  clambered  up  on  the  dilapidated 
cutches,  where  the  snakes  congregated  and  clus- 
tered, in  gaping  crews,  on  the  steps  of  the  terrace. 
Their  humor  seemed  propitious.  The  peculiar 
gaiety  that  characterized  them  when  we  were 
brought  to  Radiumopolis,  dampened  or  made  a 
little  grave  by  wonder,  again  affected  them  that 
day,  but  it  was  freer  and  more  hospitable,  and  I 
think  they  already  appreciated  the  situation. 
Goritz  and  I  had  been  rather  industrious  dissemina- 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  323 

tors  of  mischief — "Semeurs  d'emeute,'"  Antoine 
said. 

When  we  came  to  the  last  step  of  the  terrace  we 
separated.  The  Professor  took  a  central  position, 
and  the  light  luckily  turned  his  splendid  coiffure 
into  a  garnet  glory  that  must  have  transported  the 
audience  around  us.  Goritz  and  Hopkins  flanked 
him,  I  stood  somewhat  to  one  side.  We  all  held 
our  guns — magazine  rifles — but  the  Professor,  it 
was  agreed,  should  remain  statuesque  and  mo- 
tionless, only  succoring  us  at  any  critical  junc- 
ture.    I  have  a  splendid  voice,  I  proposed  to  use  it. 

By  this  time  the  throng  in  the  doorway  of  the 
Capitol  almost  blocked  it.  The  dignitaries  were 
coming  out  quickly  and  the  magistrates  from  the 
wards  of  the  city  were  arriving,  but  all  somewhat 
en  deshabille.  Their  court  robes  were  forgotten,  or 
too  hastily  deserted,  and  their  appearance  assumed 
an  absurdly  shrunken  manner  and  tenuity.  We 
very  certainly  outclassed  them.  The  Professor, 
par  excellence,  was  magnificent.  The  people  meas- 
ured the  spectacular  effect  and,  I  guess,  shrewdly 
preferred  our  "make-up." 

I  began  my  demand.  I  spoke  for  the  SON  of 
THUNDER,  and  I  spoke  of  the  prophecy  which 
described  his  coming  to  rule  his  people,  and  then, 
it  was  a  master  stroke  which  almost  unnerved  my 
friends,  knocked  the  Directory  plumb  off  its  feet, 
and  thunderstruck  the  people,  /  showed  the  golden 
tablet  (Ziliah's  stroke),  and  read  it.  By  this  time  I 
had  acquired  fairly  well  the  Hebrew  dialect  of  these 
people,  and  they  understood  me.  I  pointed  to  the 
Professor  who,  responding  to  some  histrionic 
impulse,  which  none  of  us  had  even  suspected  in 
him,  raised  his  hands  as  if  invoking  the  heavens, 
and  then  bowed  to  me,  to  Goritz,  to  Hopkins,  and 
in  unimpeachable — English,  said  in  a  loud  domi- 
neering tone. 


324  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"REVEAL  MY  POWER— FIRE!" 

Now  this  was  absolutely  an  improvisation.  We 
had  not  planned  the  affair  exactly  in  that  way,  but 
we  were  on  the  qui  vive  (Johnnies-on-the-spot, 
averred  Hopkins),  and  off  went  the  whole  magazine 
of  guns  in  a  glorious  unison.  It  was  really  immense, 
coming  as  it  did  upon  the  heels  of  the  prediction, 
that — he  kills  with  his  thunder.  Only  we  hadn't 
killed  anything.  And  then  the  Professor  by 
another  sublime  intuition  filled  the  required  bill. 
It  was  nearing  spring  time  and  the  reinforcement 
of  the  light  and  heat  from  the  diurnal  sun  was 
beginning  to  be  felt.  Some  straggling  Arctic  gulls 
crossed  the  sky.  The  Professor  was  a  fair  shot. 
The  accentuation  of  a  supreme  moment  nerved  his 
arm,  brightened  his  eye,  and  put  the  force  of  pre- 
cision in  his  aim.  He  fired — a  gull  fluttered  to  the 
ground  almost  at  our  feet — another  shot,  and  a 
second  bird  flopped  actually  upon  the  heads  of  the 
dismayed  councillors,  who  were  now  in  a  fine 
frenzy  of  agitation. 

The  mercurial  disposition  of  semi-civilized  people 
and  that  contagion  of  admiration  which,  as  Le  Bon 
has  shown,  infects  a  mob,  as  with  the  sharp  upward 
rush  of  a  fire  fanned  by  high  winds,  had  an  invinci- 
ble illustration  then  and  there.  At  first  there  was  a 
silence;  as  if  shocked  into  dumbness  by  the  inex- 
plicable occurrence,  or  bewildered  by  a  confusion  of 
responses  they  could  not  define,  they  for  a  moment 
awaited  direction.  //  came.  Oogalah,  in  the  very 
first  rank  of  the  attendant  crowds,  shouted  with 
hoarse  exultation: 

''PEE  UK— PEE  UK— PEE  UK." 

Then  came  the  reaction  of  release  from  incerti- 
tude, and  the  assemblage  caught  the  sound — Nay, 
the  word,  and  from  side  to  side,  to  and  fro,  hither, 
thither,  the  cry  doubled  and  redoubled,  until  it 
almost  seemed  as  if  the  convulsed  nation  would 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  325 

start  some  riotous  stampede  in  favor  of  that  darling, 
red-headed,  heaven-sent,  death-dealing  sovereign. 
And  the  Professor,  animated  by  I  know  not  what 
elan  of  conquest,  seized  his  rifle  in  both  hands,  and 
holding  it  horizontally  before  him,  stepped  forw^ard 
against  the  heterogeneous  throng  of  courtiers,  offi- 
cials, and  Areopagites  that  crammed  every  inch  of 
space  in  front  of  the  Capitol,  as  if  he  were  the 
Demiurge  of  Destruction.  In  a  fright  they  gave 
way,  and  in  the  path  thus  made  we  followed. 
There  was  nothing  else  to  do,  although  this  demon- 
stration to  me  seemed  unaccountable  and  danger- 
ous, as  it  might  lead  to  some  unexpected  disaster 
and  an  anticlimax  of  ridicule  and  repulsion.  With 
the  Professor  it  was  just  an  involuntary  spasm  of 
stage  play,  with  no  clear  purpose  outlined  or  even 
seen  in  it.  Behind  us  in  the  regurgitant  host  I 
could  hear  the  stentorian  roars  of  Oogalah.  This 
unexpected  and  vociferous  ally  after  all  had  a 
grudge  to  gratify ;  he  had  not  altogether  forgotten 
his  inviscerated  mother.  His  appeals  were  quite  in 
favor  of  the  new  allegiance.  You  see,  sir,  it  was  an 
orgulous  moment  for  the  Professor,  and  I  don't 
think  he  knew  exactly  what  he  was  about. 

But  Luck,  which  after  all  favors  a  good  many 
more  people  than  fools,  intervened.  We  had 
gotten  rather  tightly  entrapped  in  the  brigades 
about  the  Capitol,  when  we  were  met  by  a  huddle 
of  the  patriarchs,  themselves  somewhat  violently 
jostled  by  the  pushing  citizens.  Here  were  Javan, 
and  Put,  and  Hul,  Peleg,  Hadad,  the  head  men, 
and  they  presented  a  very  sorry  and  despoiled 
appearance.  Their  nervous  white  hands  ran  over 
their  straggling  beards  in  piteous  perplexity,  and, 
lacking  the  surplusage  of  their  state  regalia,  they 
appeared  even  more  contemptible  than  depressed. 

Knowing  me  best  and  perhaps  too  dismayed  by 
the    flaming    presence    of    the    Pretender   himself, 


326  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Javan  literally  flew  to  my  arms  and  urged  clemency. 
It  was  complete  capitulation.  I  knew  it.  But  the 
victory  must  be  more  crushing.  The  last  struggle 
of  the  victim  must  be  squelched.  It  had  occurred 
to  me  before  that  an  epic  seriousness,  if  not  majesty, 
might  be  given  to  our  high-handed  pretensions  by 
shooting  down  the  Crocodilo-Python  effigies  at  the 
corners  of  the  palace.  The  risk  might  be  con- 
siderable, and  then  again  it  might  be  very  little, 
with  tremendous  compensating  benefits  if  the  dice 
fell  the  right  way.  How  would  the  people  take  it? 
I  did  not  know.  This  moment  of  irresolution 
permitted  something  to  happen  which  gave  us  the 
upper  hand  most  beautifully,  eliminated  violence, 
and  struck  the  keynote  of  a  perfect  CONCILIA- 
TION. 

Ziliah,  ardent,  arrayed  superbly,  with  her 
copious  dark  hair  bound  up,  as  was  the  fashion  of 
the  upper-class  women,  with  the  little  gold  serpents, 
wearing  the  gold  caps  on  her  knees,  her  ankles 
encased  in  gold  filagree  that  rose  half  way  up  the 
naked  leg,  her  feet  in  golden  sandals,  and  swathed 
somehow  in  a  soft  delicate  blue  tunic  covering  her 
thighs  and  body,  but  falling  away  from  the  pillar- 
like neck  and  firmly  moulded  breasts,  a  vision  of 
picturesque  loveliness,  sprang  amongst  us.  Her 
face  was  flushed  by  excitement  but  radiant  in 
smiles.  And  of  course  she  wore  the  golden  belt 
with  its  serpent  buckle. 

She  flung  her  arms  around  the  Professor,  kissed 
him  on  both  cheeks,  salaamed,  bending  her  knees 
to  the  ground  with  a  wonderful,  unstudied  grace. 
Then  she  took  her  astonished  father's  hand  and  led 
that  little  gentleman  forward,  and  then  Put,  and 
Hul,  Peleg  and  Hadad — the  remaining  elders, 
arrived,  but  had  shrunk  from  the  presentation. 
Then  Ziliah  spoke.  Her  voice  was  high  keyed,  but 
musical,  and  had  a  soaring  quality  in  it  that  carried 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  327 

far.  Silence  fell  and  the  intensity  of  the  psycho- 
logical moment  made  me  wonder  at  the  girl's 
prescience. 

"Father,  make  peace  with  these  men.  They 
bring  us  a  New  Wisdom.  We  shall  be  happy  with 
them.  Let  the  Son  of  Thunder  (my  eyes  at  that 
instant  fell  on  Hopkins;  he  was  visibly  squirming 
in  an  agony  of  suppressed  mirth  at  the  designation, 
but  the  Professor  retained  a  most  noble  immobility) 
be  your  guide,  your  companion.  These  men  will 
all  be  brothers  to  us,  and  this  man  (she  knelt  again 
at  the  feet  of  Hopkins,  who  seized  her  in  his  arms, 
and  lifted  her  to  his  face)  will  be  my  husband." 
Javan's  astonishment  then  was  a  study. 

I  was  transported,  and  I  rushed  in  to  the  rap- 
prochement, as  she  ended,  with  fresh  promises  of 
friendship. 

Nothing  would  be  disturbed,  nothing  changed. 
We  came  to  them  strangers  from  the  clouds,  we 
would  bless  them  with  new  powers.  The  Great 
Serpent  still  should  reign. 

At  all  this  there  was  a  great  shouting,  a  tempest 
of  approving  comment,  and  the  landslide  of  public 
endorsement  overwhelmed  the  council.  The  re- 
treating or  abashed  or  cowardly  members  of  "the 
Syndicate  of  Old  Toddlers,"  as  Hopkins  said, 
issued  from  their  niches  in  the  crowd,  and  Javan, 
caught  in  an  enjamhment  from  which  he  could  not 
extricate  his  party,  surrendered.  He  came 
forward,  and  after  him  came  Put,  Hul,  Peleg, 
Hadad;  and  the  Professor,  with  a  fine  urbanity 
that  capped  the  climax  and  swept  away  all  traces 
of  resentment  or  repugnance,  fell  on  their  necks,  so 
to  speak,  though  the  act  had  to  be  rather 
sedately  done  for  he  would  incontinently  have 
knocked  them  down.  It  had  a  delightfully  funny 
and  picaresque  effect  and  I  again  felt,  as  I  had  felt 
hundreds  of  times  before,  that  it  all  was  a  dream 


328  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

and  unreal.  The  string  as  it  lengthened  em- 
braced the  whole  Areopagus,  and  this  fraternal 
ceremony  evidently,  as  Hopkins  noted,  "tickled 
the  little  old  fellow  to  death." 

They  were  all  there:  Riphath,  Kittim,  Cush, 
Pathrusim,  Lud,  Hul,  Joktan,  Naphish,  Jeush, 
Jaalam,  Shammah,  Shobal,  Homan,  Uz,  Samlah, 
Bela,  Zephi,  Zerah,  Ebal,  Manahath,  Anah,  Amram 
Mibsam,  Gomer,  Magog,  Anamim,  Ludim.  I  am 
sure  I  did  not  know  their  identity;  I  counted  them, 
thirty  in  all.  That  consummated  matters  and  set 
Professor  Hlmath  Bjornsen  of  Christiania  on  the 
throne  of  Radiumopolis  in  KROCKER  LAND. 

Javan  and  the  other  doctors  softened  beautifully, 
and  actually  expanded  into  a  self-satisfied  body  of 
patronage  and  allegiance.  The  Professor  was 
"shown  through"  the  Capitol,  and  he  threaded  its 
maze  of  compartments,  saw  its  Council  Chamber, 
enriched  with  gold,  hung  w^ith  gaudy  rugs,  and 
found  there  the  as  yet  unoccupied  clumsy  and  incal- 
culably valuable  gold  throne  which  we  had  seen 
shaking  and  rattling  in  the  procession,  itself  a  relic 
of  some  old  time,  when  this  isolated  kingdom  had 
had  a  king,  but  was  young  compared  to  that  still 
more  remote  time  when  "the  stranger"  taught 
that  king's  progenitor  the  miracle  of  making  gold. 

From  it  now,  under  the  aegis  of  its  hideous 
device,  the  rearing  Crocodilo-Python,  our  dear 
Professor  was  to  dispense  justice  to  the  Radium- 
opolites.  Of  a  truth  it  was  an  almost  inconceivable 
denouement.  What  would,  what  could,  the  Pro- 
fessor's colleagues  at  the  University  say,  and  by 
what  insupportable  hypothesis  could  they  explain 
this  transmutation? 

And  there  was  to  be  a  Coronation!  Oh  yes. 
Javan  and  the  rest  of  the  Fathers  had  conspired 
successfully  there;  indeed  the  fuss  of  its  preparation 
and  the  importance  of  their  parts  in  its  conduct 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  329 

had  now  really  made  them  inanely  jubilant  over 
the  whole  revolution  in  state  affairs. 

Hopkins  and  I  walking  eastward  along  the  broad 
highway  over  which  we  had  entered  Radiumopolis, 
out  into  that  fair  Valley  of  Rasselas  which  was 
again  stirring  with  the  field  life  of  the  advancing 
spring,  talked  rather  earnestly  of  our  predicament, 
for,  after  all,  predicament  it  was.  How  were  we  to 
get  home  and  tell  our  story?  We  were  to  be  made 
a  good  deal  of  here  but — could  we  escape?  Goritz 
had  become  eager  to  return  with  his  gold 
"souvenirs"  (never  inquired  for),  with  his  radium, 
with  the  secret  of  making  gold,  if  he  could  learn  it. 
That  was  yet  concealed  and,  much  more  important, 
so  were  the  tubes.  Those  balloons,  the  radium-lit 
cave  in  the  Deer  Pels.  And  there  was  the  great 
ethnic  wonder  of  the  people  themselves,  the  marvel 
of  the  Stationary  Sun,  the  radium  country!  It 
was  impossible  to  reconcile  ourselves  to  a  lifelong 
immurement  in  this  monotony.  Science  must 
break  through  into  this  chrysalis  of  wonders.  It 
was  our  bounden  duty  to  bring  her  here.  But 
literally  we  were  captives;  the  hocus-pocus  of  our 
descent  from  the  sky  would  not  let  us  demean  our- 
selves in  ordinary  ways  (in  spite  of  past  precedents 
of  the  vulgarity  on  the  part  of  heaven-descended 
kings)  and  we  began  to  see  we  had  prepared  a 
dilemma  for  ourselves  which  might  end  more  fatally 
than  the  enmity  of  the  little  doctors  had  threatened. 

Now  all  was  changed,  and  like  flies  in  honey  were 
we  hopelessly  entangled.  Perhaps  the  most  for- 
tunate of  us  all  was  Spruce  Hopkins  himself,  who 
frankly  loved  Ziliah;  but  even  he  wanted  to 
"vamoose"  and  take  his  bride  with  him,  for  he 
thought  she  would  "take  the  edge  off  the  jolliest 
swell  ladies  anywhere."  The  Professor,  now  the 
joke  was  over  and  our  necks  safe,  was  sick  to  death 
of  his  role,  and  only  extracted  a  comforting  morsel 


330  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

of  pleasure  from  it  in  its  possibility  of  opening  to 
him  the  few  but  very  peculiar  secrets  of  physics  and 
chemistry  which  the  Faculty  of  Radiumopolis 
monopolized — monopolized  too,  we  learned,  by  a 
rigid  system  of  verbal  transmission.  And  then  our 
thunder!  It  wouldn't  last  for  ever;  and  our 
celestial  powers  would  fail  conclusively  in  creating 
cartridges  on  demand,  owing  to  the  unscrupulous 
fondness  on  the  part  of  the  Radiumopolites,  which 
was  having  easily  foreseen  and  disastrous  conse- 
quences. Our  supply  was  shrinking  fast.  We 
adopted  the  expedient  of  delegating  the  role  of 
Thunderer  to  the  Professor,  which  saved  shot,  or  at 
least  extended  the  usefulness  of  our  arsenal.  The 
peaceful  nature  of  the  Professor  was,  however,  so 
far  exasperated  by  the  improvident  urgency  of  his 
subjects  that  he  confessed  to  a  murderous  inclina- 
tion to  shoot  them  at  the  same  time.  If  any  one  of 
us  got  away  he  would  need  his  gun  and  ammunition 
and  much  more — a  stock  of  provisions  too,  and 
transportation.     We  both  felt  pretty  blue. 

Hopkins:  "One  of  us  must  make  a  break 
soon." 

I:  "Well  you  certainly  can't.  Your  family's 
here  now." 

Hopkins:  "Ziliah's  a  sport.  She  might  just 
prove  to  be  the  guy  to  put  light  in  flight.  Besides 
I  could  tell  her  some  things  about  the  way  we  live 
in  New  York  that  might  increase  her  desire  to 
travel." 

I:    "But  we  came  from  Heaven!" 

Hopkins:  "Yes,  I  know — we're  the  angelic  sort. 
Say,  if  I  wanted  to  desert  Ziliah — and  I  don't — I 
could  play  up  the  Lohengrin  gag.  Get  her  to  ask 
questions,  get  mad  about  it — and  quit.'' 

I :   "Easier  said  than  done." 

Hopkins:  "There's  no  chance  to  skip  out  up  here 
in  this  everlasting  daylight." 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  331 

I:  "Pshaw!  That  isn't  it.  Think  of  the  journey- 
back;    think  of  the  ice  pack." 

Hopkins:  "If  we  could  only  wireless  back  for  a 
relief  expedition." 

I:    "//." 

We  turned  back,  gloomy  and  dispirited.  When 
we  reached  Radiumopolis  we  found  King  Hlmath 
Bjornsen  thundering  from  the  Capitol  and  Goritz — 
gone. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

GoRiTz's  Death  and  the  Gold  Makers 

I  skip  the  coronation  and  enthronement  of  King 
Himath  Bjornsen  of  Krocker  Land  in  Radium- 
opolis,  because  the  King  asked  me  to  do  so  in  my 
last  interview  with  him.  He  wishes  to  reserve  its 
features  for  his  great  book.  He  thinks  that  the 
ceremonies,  taken  in  connection  with  many  other 
considerations  prove  that  the  Krocker  Land  culture 
ties  together  a  number  of  ancestral  ethnic  cults,  and 
that  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  mixture 
of  semi-savage  practices,  the  archaic  or  nepionic 
status  of  society,  the  advanced  language,  the  pecu- 
liar acquisitions  of  the  patrician  class,  their  special- 
ized though  limited  knowledge,  the  vitality  of  the 
serpent-monster  worship  taken  in  connection  with 
the  biological  fact  of  a  partial,  at  any  rate,  survival 
of  mesozoic  conditions  in  limited  topographic 
basins,  as  seen  in  the  Saurian  Sea,  in  the  chain  of 
swamps  beyond  the  Pool  of  Oblation,  and  especially 
in  the  undeniable  and  formidable  fact  of  the  exis- 
tence of  the  Crocodilo-Python,  an  animal  quite 
unlike  any  known  saurian,  indicate  what  he  terms 
the  concatenated  debris  of  a  series  of  overlaid  civi- 
lizations and  that  its  complete  interpretation  will 
carry  us  back  to  the  probable  origin  of  Homo 
sapiens  and  the  Garden  of  Eden,  restricted  of 
course  to  a  purely  naturalistic  conception.      (Er- 

332 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  33S 

rickson  took  a  long  breath,  and  then — he  was  off 
again.) 

The  geological  features  of  this  polar  pit,  its 
stepped  or  terraced  conformation,  the  extra- 
ordinary igneous  activity  revealed  beneath  it  and 
the  disclosure  herein  of  immense  endomorphic 
radium  deposits,  combined  with  unparalleled 
meteorological  phenomena  are  also  reserved  by  the 
Professor,  the  King,  for  personal  and  elaborate 
treatment.  With  the  especial  opportunities  now 
available  the  Prof — the  King  (It's  difficult  for  me 
to  be  consistent  in  alluding  to  my  old  friend)  will 
prosecute  inquiry,  so  far  as  his  official  duties  per- 
mit, but  through  me,  Mr.  Link,  he  most  fervently 
implores  scientific  recognition  of  the  facts  so  far 
recorded  in  this  narrative,  and  immediate  scientific 
interposition  in  his  behalf  and  cooperation  for  his 
assistance.  (Erickson  again  paused  and  allowed 
the  full  meaning  of  his  elongated  statements  to 
penetrate  my  purely  secular  mind.) 

However,  this  in  passing,  Mr.  Link.  I  will  recur 
to  it.  Let  me  resume  my  story,  omitting  under  the 
foregoing  stipulations  any  description  of  the  Pro- 
fessor's enthronement.  I  am  indeed  approaching 
the  moment  of  my  own  hazardous  dash  from 
Krocker  Land  for  the  outer  world. 

Goritz,  I  said,  had  disappeared.  It  seems  he 
had  not  been  seen  for  many  settas — setta  is  equiva- 
lent to  about  twelve  hours.  Hopkins  and  I  had 
been  away  scouring  the  countryside,  and  knew 
nothing  of  Goritz's  whereabouts.  I  have  already 
hinted  at  his  restlessness,  moodiness,  and  his  un- 
ceasing hunt  for  gold.  Latterly  this  had  become 
changed  into  an  intense  eagerness  to  revisit  the 
radium  country  with  Oolagah  to  collect  radium. 

We  had  not  yet  seen  the  process  of  transmuta- 
tion, certain  as  we  were  as  to  its  accomplishment 
and  knowledge  of  the  same  among  the  Radium- 


334  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

opolites,  a  knowledge  probably  limited  to  the 
doctors.  Goritz  had  a  theory  as  to  the  illimitable 
power  of  radium  to  effect  this  conversion.  He  was 
mistaken.  He  was  dissatisfied  with  the  pieces  we 
had  been  given — oxidized  lumps  holding  the  un- 
changed metal  in  their  centers — and  was  always 
teasing  Oogalah  to  take  him  again  to  the  radium 
valley  or  chasm.  Oogalah  refused.  I  think  he  did 
not  relish  Goritz's  company.  Now  Hopkins  and  I 
believed  Goritz  harbored  the  intention  to  gather 
his  belongings  at  a  favorable  moment,  mostly  the 
gold  objects  and  the  radium,  and,  trusting  blindly 
in  his  great  strength,  experience,  and  resources,  to 
force  his  way  back  to  the  Krocker  Land  Rim,  regain 
the  coast,  hunt  up  the  naphtha  launch  and  possibly 
make  some  attempt  to  sail  back  to  Point  Barrow. 
It  was  sheer  madness.  We  had  had  few  occasions 
to  argue  it  with  him,  as  he  rather  avoided  us,  and 
his  secretiveness  and  stealthy  activity  strengthened 
our  suspicions.  Hopkins  half  feared  the  unfor- 
tunate man  was  losing  his  mind. 

But  when  we  learned  of  his  absence — we  were  all 
rather  marked  men  now  in  Radiumopolis  and  our 
goings  and  comings  were  minutely  noticed — I 
suspected  at  once  he  had  tried  to  get  to  the  radium 
fields  alone  and  had  been  lost  or  destroyed  there. 
Taking  Oogalah,  now  acting  under  orders,  Hopkins 
and  I  started  out.  We  reached  the  peridotite  hills 
which  afforded  us  such  welcome  relief  against  the 
inordinate  misery  of  our  heads,  that  arose  from  the 
powerful  emanations  of  the  region  of  the  granite 
ledges.  No  traces  of  our  missing  friend  appeared. 
Oogalah  left  us,  passing  through  the  gateway 
between  the  sulphur  patches,  and  made  straight 
for  the  edge  of  the  cliffside  that  broke  down  into  the 
unapproachable  and  impossible  crevice.  Beyond  the 
farthest  point  he  dared  to  penetrate  lay  the 
prostrate    body    of    Antoine    Goritz,    our    former 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  335 

leader,  dead.  Oogalah  could  see  him  plainly,  but 
he  hesitated  to  try  to  reach  him,  and  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  him  alone  to  have  carried  this 
youthful  giant  back.  Goritz's  head  was  towards 
Oogalah  coming  from  the  east.  He  had  fallen 
headlong,  a  little  crumpled  up,  as  if  in  convulsions 
when  he  fell,  and  in  his  hands,  still  clutched  in  an 
irretractable  deathgrip,  were  two  lumps  of  radium. 

Sorrowfully  Hopkins  and  I  turned  back,  followed 
by  the  mute  but  wondering  Eskimo.  We  could  not 
possibly  have  recovered  the  body  then,  but  we 
hoped  to  later.  We  had  already  heard  that  the 
workers  in  radium,  the  Gold  Makers,  were  like 
Oogalah  immunized  or  less  sensitive  to  its  paralyz- 
ing influence,  and  with  some  of  these  men  we  hoped 
the  recovery  could  be  made.  We  noticed  on  this 
sad  errand  that  our  own  susceptibility  had  changed, 
that  it  deterred  us  less,  just  as  for  months  past  the 
irritation  of  the  eyes  from  the  peculiar  light  of  the 
land  had  passed  away,  which  before,  in  the  Deer 
Pels,  even  in  the  Pine  Tree  Gredin,  had  afflicted 
us.  So,  reluctantly  we  returned,  fully  assured  by 
Oogalah  that  with  assistance  from  some  of  the 
gold  makers  the  body  could  be  withdrawn.  And 
that,  sir,  partially  led  to  our  second  visit  to  the 
village  of  the  Gold  Makers. 

That  gold  was  made  by  some  miraculous  power, 
aided  by  some  peculiar  skill  in  the  Radiumopolites, 
we  had  convinced  ourselves,  before  we  reached  that 
city.  Since  then  the  spectacle  of  the  Capitol,  the 
apparent  extravagance  of  the  use  of  gold  in  decora- 
tion and  in  apparel,  and  even  in  the  appurtenances 
of  the  rooms  and  homes  of  the  officers  of  the  city, 
the  shockingly  hideous  Crocodilo-Python  efifigies 
on  the  palace,  and  that  impossible,  realistic  creation 
of  the  Serpent-Throne  in  which  the  Professor  sat  at 
the  time  of  his  triumphant  coronation,  and  Ziliah's 
story  and  the  equally  credible  narrations  of  Oogalah 


336  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

confirmed  specifically  our  suspicions.  But  we  had 
never  seen  it  made,  nor  even  found  in  the  industries 
of  the  city  any  trace  of  its  manufacture.  That  the 
odd  encounter  of  ours  with  the  sphalerite  in  the 
limestone  cave  of  the  Deer  Pels,  when  the  convoca- 
tion of  little  men  drifted  down  from  the  sky,  borne 
by  those  incommensurable  balloons  (and,  by  the 
way,  we  had  never  since  seen  a  balloon  in  use  or 
idle)  had  something  to  do  with  gold  making,  we 
were  positive. 

Since  our  arrival  and  establishment  in  the  city 
we  had  heard  of  the  Gold  Makers.  It  was  for  them 
that  Oogalah  explored  the  radium  fields  near  the 
Crater  of  Everlasting  Light.  Oogalah  told  us  most 
of  what  we  learned  about  them.  They  were  a 
different  people  again  from  either  the  Eskimo  or  the 
Hebrew  type  in  the  city  of  Radiumopolis,  and  the 
Valley  of  Rasselas.  They  lived  in  a  secluded  com- 
munity many  miles  away  from  Radiumopolis,  and 
seldom  visited  the  city,  though  they  occasionally 
intermarried  with  the  comely  Eskimo  girls  or  the 
larger  women  of  the  small  race.  When  we  inquired 
the  cause  of  their  isolation  Oogalah  said  the  mines 
were  where  they  were  to  be  found,  and  the  burial 
grounds. 

The  last  named  excited  our  wonder,  but  Oogalah 
was  vague  on  the  subject  and  seemingly  uninter- 
ested. He  did  exhibit  some  enthusiasm  over  his 
recollections  of  the  wildness  and  beauty  of  the 
country  where  the  Gold  Makers  lived  and  worked, 
and  mentioned  a  mighty  river  there.  This  was  the 
river  that  issued  from  the  Canon  of  Promise,  the 
efifluent  from  the  Saurian  Sea,  which,  as  I  have  said, 
again  turned  westward  and  through  another 
savage  defile  entered  the  Kara  Sea.  That  river  I 
named  "Homeward  Bound,''  for  by  it  I  came  out. 

Well,  the  Professor,  after  his  accession,  expressed 
the  strongest  desire  to  see  the  Gold  Makers  and 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  337 

their  country,  and  said  that  we  all  must  accompany 
him.  For  the  Professor  had  acquired  a  little  know- 
ledge of  the  language,  and  with  me  as  interpreter 
he  got  on  famously,  and  told  the  Council  of 
wise  men  that  he  was  writing  a  book  about  them, 
and  after  they  had  mastered  the  idea,  for  among 
their  other  trivialities  they  had  no  books,  no 
writings  of  any  sort,  they  took  to  it  immensely. 
This  appeal  to  their  vanity — magalomania  literally 
and  figuratively — was  a  great  stroke.  Bjornsen 
will  find  out  all  their  knowledge  before  he  abdicates. 

So  it  very  soon  materialized  that  we  should  be 
shown  the  Gold  Makers.  (This  was  some  time 
before  Goritz's  death.)  It  was  a  picturesque  trip. 
I  shall  never  forget  it,  and  for  good  reasons.  It 
started  me  on  my  way  home. 

The  Professor,  Goritz,  Hopkins,  myself,  and  the 
chief  men  of  the  Senate,  Javan,  Put,  Hul,  Peleg  and 
Hadad,  made  up  the  party  with  the  guard,  drivers 
and  a  few  attendants.  We  went  in  their  odd 
wooden-wheeled  jaunting  cars,  pulled  by  the  very 
lively  and  entertaining  rams. 

It  would  form  an  appealing  and  pleasant  study 
for  me  to  describe  the  Junta  of  Radiumopolis — 
those  thirty  humorous  little  figures,  with  the  sedate, 
old,  and  variously  featured  faces,  a  galaxy  of  phy- 
siognomies that  embraced  good  nature,  cunning, 
sullenness,  querulous  self  importance,  feebleness, 
gravity,  benevolence  (more  in  the  seeming  than  in 
the  reality,  I  take  it)  spitefulness,  apathy,  fussiness, 
dullness,  alertness,  sympathy,  cruelty,  perhaps 
sternness,  and  above  all  a  mannerism  of  profundity 
unspeakably  amusing.  Their  physique  is  hopeless, 
for  they  have  pin  bodies  and  have  pin  heads,  as 
Hopkins  described  them,  and  their  off-the-center 
look  with  their  top-heavy  heads  and  bowed 
shoulders  make  a  mannikin  effect,  ludicrous  and 
grotesque.     All  are  dark. 


338  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

But  while  we  are  on  our  way  to  the  Gold  Makers, 
through  the  open  flowering  meads  and  broad 
pastures  and  arable  acres  of  the  Rasselas  Valley, 
I  will  try  very  briefly — in  staccato — to  put  before 
you  Javan,  Put,  Hul,  Peleg  and  Hadad. 

Javan,  the  father  of  Ziliah,  was  by  far  the  best 
looking,  and  generally  the  best  formed.  His  face 
was  really  handsome,  and  his  beard  made  no  false 
claim  to  being  one.  It  was  full  and  flowing.  His 
eyes  were  large,  glowing  and  passionate.  He 
smiled  too  much,  and  a  "few  crowns  and  bridges 
made  from  home  material  would  have  benefited  his 
mouth  organ,"  said  Hopkins.  His  cheeks  were 
hollow  and  pale,  but  the  positive  beauty  of  the 
broad  white  brow  seemed  to  compensate  for  all 
other  defects. 

Put  was  a  rather  tall  man,  under  the  restricted 
sense  of  long  and  short  as  applied  to  these  gentle- 
men, and  nearly  bald.  His  nose  was  a  more 
modest  creation  that  those  of  most  of  his  colleagues, 
but  his  mouth,  in  so  small  a  face,  was  portentous. 
Nature  by  some  ineptitude  had  almost  omitted  his 
ears,  and  his  eyes  had  a  glassy  and  fixed  stare 
(when  not  concealed  by  the  ofificial  goggles),  but  the 
forlorn  remnant  of  some  forgotten  smile  had 
become  fastened  in  his  face,  which  actually  helped 
the  artificial  effect  of  his  eyes  to  the  point  of  making 
you  almost  believe  he  was  of  wood  or  plaster,  and 
not  of  flesh  and  blood.  Hopkins  quoted  the  Bab 
Ballad  verse,  which  runs, 

"  'The    imp    with    yell    unearthly-wild, 

Threw  off  his  dark  enclosure: 
His  dauntless  victim  looked  and  smiled 

With  singular  composure. 
For  hours  he  tried  to  daunt  the  youth, 

For  days  indeed,  but  vainly — 
The  stripling  smiled!    to  tell  the  truth 

The  stripling  smiled  inanely.'  " 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  339 

Hull  was  somewhat  shorter  but  he  was  a  distinct 
analogue  to  Put,  with  most  of  Put's  eccentricities, 
softened,  by  no  means  to  the  point  of  extinction, 
but  so  far  as  to  make  him  a  laughable  simulacrum. 

Peleg  was  the  best  example  of  this  small  Semitic 
people  in  the  thirty  Areopagites.  He  was  really 
muscular  in  a  way,  well  developed,  with  a  hawk's 
eye,  and  a  severity  that  would  require,  I  surmised, 
very  little  provocation  to  turn  it  into  ferocity. 
His  head  seemed  less  ponderous,  he  carried  it 
straighter,  and  a  deeper  glow  of  redness  in  his  face 
imparted  to  him  a  humanity  denied  by  the  parch- 
ment-like texture  of  his  fellows.  His  beard  too, 
was  full  and  his  hair  really  rich  and  luxuriant.  I 
think  he  would  have  proven  a  firm  friend. 

Hadad  was  an  anomaly.  He  was  fat.  Hopkins 
called  him  "the  Alderman";  he  was  the  presum- 
ably happy  possessor  of  a  so-called  corporation  (as 
Hopkins  put  it,  "a  Trust  individualized  as  an 
abdomen")  ,  and  his  voice  and  laugh  were  musical. 
Generally  I  don't  insist  on  the  association,  but  I 
have  found  it  noticeable.  Hadad  had  pop-eyes 
and  an  incorrigible  habit  of  spitting.  He  seemed 
loquacious,  and  he  usually  could  be  found  in  the 
midst  of  any  discussion. 

This  conventionalized  description  might  produce 
a  wrong  impression.  These  little  men  did  not  dress 
in  coat,  vest  and  pants.  Figure  them  in  yellow  or 
blue  tunics  falling  well  below  the  knees,  sometimes 
in  a  sort  of  violet  cassock,  either  bound  with  the 
rococo  gold  belt  and  its  conspicuous  gold  buckle, 
with  leggings  or  buskins,  with  the  beehive  hat,  and 
all  this  apparel  on  state  occasions  loaded  with  gold 
chains.  You  can  conceive  that  they  presented  a 
most  unusual  appearance,  even  one  of  some  dignity, 
though  it  must  be  confessed  their  relatively  large 
noses  undeniably  depraved  it  with  a  vaudeville  ef- 
fect.    Hopkins  never  could  get  over  this  impression. 


340  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

"Alfred,  if  I  could  ship  'em,  as  they  stand,  on  the 
hoof  so  to  speak,  to  New  York! — sign  a  contract  as 
manager,  and  bill  'em  for  a  tour  of  the  States,  my 
financial  horizon  would  be  cloudless.     Eh?" 

The  defects  of  these  diminutive  people  seemed 
increased  by  contrast  with  the  taller  race,  who  were 
well  made,  normal  in  every  way,  and  whose  women 
were  most  pleasing.  And  as  regards  the  ladies  of 
the  small  type,  they  were  much  bigger  than  the 
men — another  fact  to  the  disadvantage  of  their 
undersized  partners — and  often,  as  with  Ziliah, 
they  were  superb.  (The  matrimonial  question  was 
already  looming  ominously  prominent  for  King 
Bjornsen,  and  his  counsellors,  I  knew,  were  solici- 
tous for  his  royal  appreciation  of  their  daughters — 
"one,  or  several  or  all,"  said  Hopkins.) 

And  there  was  the  great  and  glorious  land  of  the 
Gold  Makers.  As  we  approached,  its  diversity  and 
contrasts  became  excitingly  apparent.  And,  as  in 
myself  dawned  the  scheme  of  making  it  the  point  of 
my  departure,  or  ESCAPE,  to  that  great  outer 
world  from  which  like  thrown  pebbles  Chance — not 
in  this  case  a  blind  goddess — had  dropped  us  into 
this  sealed  and  secluded  lesser  world,  it  assumed  a 
veritable  splendor.  Far  off  the  shimmering  agita- 
tion of  the  broad  stream  that  poured  its  accumu- 
lated flood  down  a  long  grade  from  the  Canon  of 
Promise,  in  a  vast  crosscut  through  the  Pine  Tree 
Gredin,  sparkled  in  our  view.  Hills,  low  and 
sparsely  wooded,  rose  from  the  floor  of  the  Valley 
of  Rasselas — we  had  already  reached  the  latter's 
northwestern  limit — between  them  were  flat  and 
grassed  interspaces,  and  in  the  foreground  a  savan- 
nah-like expanse,  quite  treeless,  and  then  far  to  the 
right  the  clustering  villages  of  the  Gold  Makers. 
Obviously  the  river  dominated  the  scene,  with  that 
far  distant  background  of  indefinite  elevations 
outlining   the    northern    concentric    bulwarks    of 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  341 

Krocker  Land,  beyond  which  a  good  glass  might 
detect  the  shroud  of  the  Perpetual  Nimbus,  and  yet 
farther,  infinitely  removed,  but  seen  in  presence  if 
not  in  form,  the  snowy  or  ruddy  pinnacles  of 
Krocker  Land  Rim.  The  river  before  it  reached 
the  pastoral  foreground  had  recovered  its  calm,  and 
only  in  its  full  tide  did  the  gliding  patches  of  foam, 
and  here  and  there  a  larger,  more  disquieted  wave, 
indicate  the  turmoil  and  torture  of  its  descent. 
The  road  drew  near  to  its  banks.  Within  our  view 
it  turned  westward,  and  we  could  see  that  it  again 
passed  outward  between  the  walls  of  a  rugged  and 
imposing  defile.  Could  I  trust  myself  to  its  im- 
petuous current,  and  find  over  its  boiling  waters  an 
avenue  of  escape?  So  I  mused,  as  we  jolted  along 
and  as,  to  me,  the  scenery  brought  back  long  for- 
gotten pictures  of  the  Vale  of  Llangollen  in 
Wales. 

Scarcely  were  we  in  sight  of  the  villages  than 
some  of  their  occupants  hurried  to  meet  us.  When 
they  came  closer,  to  our  wonder,  we  found  them,  as 
Oogalah  had  described,  of  a  different  racial  type 
from  the  rest  of  the  Radiumopolites  and  very  un- 
mistakably Samoyedes,  men  from  the  vast  Siberian 
uplands,  physically  distinguishable  by  the  broad 
faces  and  pyramidal  skulls  of  the  Turanian  family. 
These  nomads  of  the  treeless  fringes  of  Siberia,  so 
far  as  indications  showed  or  inquiry  elicited,  had 
been  in  a  small  company,  wrecked  on  the  Arctic 
coast  of  Krocker  Land  in  some  dateless  past.  They 
had  made  their  way  into  the  Valley  of  Rasselas,  had 
established  themselves  without  molestation  in  this 
restricted  corner,  and  had  then — how,  remained  an 
unanswered  or  insoluble  question — come  under 
subjection  of  the  Radiumopolites.  When  the 
peculiar  industry  which  now  engaged  them  had 
developed  was  as  indefinite  in  its  relations  to  what 
went  before  or  followed  after  it  as  the  advent  of  the 


342  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

supernatural  (?)  stranger  who  had  taught  Radium- 
opolis  the  process  of  gold  manufacture  itself. 

It  seemed  however  that  at  an  early  time  these 
Samoyedes  had  been  appropriated  as  workers  in 
this  singular  art,  because  of  their  discovered  im- 
munity from  the  deleterious  effects  or  influences  of 
the  hypostatic  element. 

I  saw  men  and  women  fishing  in  the  broad  river, 
and  to  my  amazement  found  their  boats  were 
literally  rafts — wooden  logs  bound  together  by 
ropes  or  thongs  of  leather  and  fibre.  Hardly  had  I 
perceived  this  before  the  thought  and  hope  flashed 
through  my  mind  that  on  some  such  vehicle  of 
transit  I  could  trust  myself  to  the  stream,  and  that 
it  was  most  likely  that  these  hardy  highlanders 
could  give  me  the  information  I  now  needed  as  to 
the  channel,  direction,  debouchment,  and  navig- 
ableness of  the  noble  water  in  its  course  to  the  coast. 

One  of  the  strange  idiosyncracies  of  the  Radium- 
opolites,  in  spite  of  their  attested  skill  in  workman- 
ship, their  intelligence  and  emotional  liveliness,  was 
their  obtuseness  in  geographic  matters,  or  better, 
numbness.  I  don't  think  they  ever  questioned  the 
fact  of  their  absolute  finality  both  in  place  and  in 
existence.  Outside  of  the  distant  Krocker  Land 
Rim  was  nothing  but  that  blockade  of  ice,  of  which 
they  had  heard — the  gold  belt  found  by  Goritz  was 
a  token  of  an  aeronautic  (?)  reconnaissance — and 
outside  of  that,  if  speculation  in  their  minds  sug- 
gested the  query,  was  just  nothing  again.  As  the 
Professor  said,  "The  centripetal  tendency  of  many 
primitive  cultures  was  well  understood,  but  in  this 
case  it  was  pivotal  on  a  new  topographic  conforma- 
tion that  forbade  migration."  I  don't  suppose  it 
ever  occurred  to  a  Radiumopolite  to  even  ask  what 
might  become  of  that  river  cutting  across  this  cor- 
ner of  his  Eden-like  valley.  They  had  become 
static,  and  what  they  knew  and  what  they  enjoyed 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  343 

never  changed.  In  house  building,  in  weaving,  in 
a  rude  artistry  of  design,  in  agriculture,  in  brick 
and  tile  and  pot  making,  in  their  religion,  in  their 
games,  they  had  attained  a  development  that  gave 
them  happiness.  And  that  ended  it.  It  was 
Inca-like,  or  Mayan,  Toltecan,  Aztecan,  or  any  of 
the  American  cultures  which  inhabit  one  spot, 
flourishing  within  it  and  never  exceeding  it,  like  the 
phenomena  of  centralization  in  plants  and  animals. 
And  yet  what  questions  this  same  culture  sug- 
gested to  a  less  individualized  student,  that 
diminutive  Semitic  race,  the  tree  and  serpent 
survival,  and  this  unique  oligarchy  of  little  mag- 
nates ! 

Arrived  within  the  precincts  of  the  Samoyedian 
village,  there  was  a  bustling  reception  from  dogs 
and  children.  These  were  the  first  dogs  we  had 
seen.  Then  a  slow  emergence  of  women  and  older 
men  from  the  low  briquette  abodes  followed. 
Almost  without  noticing  their  salutations,  Javan, 
Put,  Hul,  Peleg,  Hadad,  leading  the  way,  took  us 
through  the  scanty  settlement  to  a  series  of  bar- 
racks, also  made  of  burned  clay  briquettes,  and 
entered  the  first  one.  On  long  rude  tables  were 
heaped,  in  this  armory,  piles  of  galena  (lead  sul- 
phide), and  the  glistening  mineral  was  in  nodules, 
free  and  clear,  or  enclosed  in  a  pulverulent  lime- 
stone. It  was  the  duty  here  of  the  workmen  to 
extract  the  mineral  from  its  matrix,  pound  it  into 
dust,  and  separate  it  in  small  wicker  baskets.  It 
was  then  carried  away  in  these  receptacles,  by  men, 
to  other  buildings.  In  another  house  or  shed 
Sphalerite  (zinc  sulphide)  was  similarly  treated. 
From  these  preparatory  stages  we  passed  to  the 
radium  storehouse.  This  was  practically  a  cave 
dug  in  the  side  of  the  hill,  where  the  material, 
gathered  by  Oogalah  was  kept,  and  which  we  were 
not  permitted  to  enter.     The  radium  masses  were 


344  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

thrown  into  this  place  through  an  opening  above,  a 
sort  of  chimney,  and  removed  below  by  an  opening 
which  permitted  their  extrication  by  stone  hoes. 
As  they  were  drawn  out  they  were  taken  in  baskets 
to  the  Mixing  House.  The  critical  work  was 
effected  here. 

In  every  respect  it  was  like  the  other  workshops, 
but  in  it  the  workmen  did  not  remain  more  than 
two  hours  at  a  time,  the  "shifts,"  as  we  would  say, 
being  then  changed.  At  one  end  of  this  building 
the  radium  nodules  were  cleared  of  their  dull 
coatings  of  oxide.  Instantly  the  metallic  nuclei, 
which  was  malleable  to  a  slight  degree,  but  which 
soon  developed  brittleness,  were  pushed  towards 
other  workmen,  who  hammered  them  with  stone 
mallets  or  hammers  until  they  were  broken  or 
splintered  into  grains  or  small  angular  pieces. 
This  triturated  metal  was  pushed  forward  again 
with  slate  knives  to  the  last  group  of  workers  to 
whom  the  basket  of  pulverized  lead  and  zinc  min- 
eral had  been  brought. 

These  operators  divided  the  broken  radium  into 
lots  and  poured  over  each  lot  the  contents  of  a 
single  basket.  The  heap  thus  formed  of  the  com- 
mingled radium  and  sulphide  was  then  drawn  to  the 
edge  of  the  stone  and  brick  table  and  carefully 
scraped  into  a  leathern  or  woven  apron  or  bag  and 
tied  up.  From  this  house  these  bundles  were 
carried  away  to  a  distant  upland  which  furnished 
a  favorable  soil  for  their  burial;  they  were  de- 
posited in  holes,  five  to  ten  feet  deep,  the 
variation  in  depth  having  some  reference  to  the 
size  of  the  bundles.  These  burials  were  then  not 
disturbed  for  a  length  of  time  which  corresponded 
to  about  a  year  of  our  time.  At  the  expiration  of 
that  period  they  were  exhumed  and  examined. 
Fortunately  we  were  enabled  to  see  this  stage  of  the 
process  also.     The  bundle  being  taken  out  of  its 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  345 

sepulture  is  opened  on  a  table  and  its  contents 
spread  out  in  a  thin  layer.  From  the  granular 
commixture  the  gold  particles  are  carefully  picked 
out,  and  are  then  collected  for  welding  by  pressure 
into  larger  pieces. 

Certainly  nothing  could  have  been  more  amazing 
than  the  exhibition  thus  offered  of  the  transmuting 
power  of  this  wizard  element.  The  transmutation 
is  never  complete,  that  is,  the  original  mass  of 
galena  or  sphalerite  is  never  wholly  converted  into 
gold.  The  residues  are  reinterred  with  the  almost 
unaltered  radium,  and  after  six  months  are  again 
examined.  The  second  crop  of  gold  grains  invari- 
ably is  less,  and  after  a  third  trial  the  mixture  is 
carefully  freed  from  the  radium  and  the  unaffected 
sulphide  thrown  out.  The  radium  thus  used  is 
kept  apart  from  the  fresher  supplies  of  radium 
whose  potency  is  always  stronger.  But  the  parti- 
ally exhausted  reagent  is  saved,  and  used  over  and 
over  again  with  fresh  ores.  For,  just  as  the  radium 
suffers  a  diminution  of  efficacy,  so  does  the  sulphide 
lose  its  susceptibility  to  its  influence.  This  neces- 
sarily involves  considerable  sorting,  parceling, 
labeling  and  adjustment.  Superintendents  watch 
the  operations  of  each  workhouse,  and  the  new  and 
old  supplies  of  the  radium  and  of  the  ores  are 
successfully  recorded  and  mutually  apportioned,  as 
experience  dictates.  The  lead  sulphide  yields  the 
larger  percentage  of  transmuted  gold. 

In  all  instances  the  crop  of  gold  is  small,  and  its 
accumulation  slow,  so  that  the  rich  displays  at 
Radiumopolis  must  have  represented  the  result  of 
many  years  of  this  peculiar  labor.  Javan  told  me 
that  the  yield  of  gold  was  steadily  diminishing 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  radium,  and 
the  almost  exhausted  condition  of  the  lead  and 
zinc  sulphide  mines.  Then  he  told  me  of  a  possible 
new  replenishment  of  the  latter  from  deposits  far 


346  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

beyond  the  pine  tree  forest  to  the  east.  The 
Professor,  Hopkins,  and  myself  exchanged  an  astute 
smile  of  understanding  as  did  also  Goritz,  though 
less  intelligibly.  We  recalled  the  fiying  trip  of  the 
doctors,  and  the  radium-lighted  cave  in  the  Deer 
Fels.  The  mines  of  sulphide  in  the  limestone  hills 
of  the  Gold  Makers'  country  are  of  the  types  fami- 
liar to  the  miners  of  the  same  mineral  in  Minnesota, 
Wisconsin  and  Iowa. 

With  what  wonder  stricken  faces  the  Professor, 
Hopkins,  Goritz  and  I  gazed  upon  the  flattened 
piles  of  sulphide  ore  and  radium,  after  the  long- 
buried  mixture  was  taken  out  of  the  ground  in 
whose  seclusion  the  miraculous  effect  had  indisput- 
ably been  produced.  The  lead-gray  glint  of  the 
ore  made  more  conspicuous  the  scattered  dust  of 
gold  amongst  it,  with  particles  cohering  to  half 
converted  lumps  of  galena.  And  our  wonder 
transcended  words  when  we  were  led  into  an  adjoin- 
ing room  where  the  gold  detritus  was  hammered 
into  sizeable  bits,  and  these  again  compacted  into 
sticks  or  nodules,  while  on  the  shelves  surrounding 
this  apartment,  the  collected  masses  lay  in  bewilder- 
ing confusion.  Aladdin's  Lamp  seemed  almost  less 
insupportably  incredible. 

It  was  on  the  occasion  of  the  enforced  second — 
but  much  desired — visit,  when  we  besought  the 
services  of  the  Samoyedes  to  recover  the  body  of  our 
lost  friend,  that  I  again  studied,  more  closely,  the 
chances  of  the  river  liberating  me  from  the  increas- 
ingly unendurable  imprisonment.  A  few  of  the 
hardened  Samoyedes  were  brought  back  with  us, 
after  this  errand  of  mercy,  to  Radiumopolis,  and 
with  Oogalah  they  recovered  the  body  of  Goritz. 
I  think  the  Council  would  have  been  pleased  to 
have  instituted  a  special  Crocodilo-Python  festival, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  347 

and  delivered  the  poor  fellow's  body  to  the  horrible 
denizens  of  the  neighboring  swamps,  but  King 
Bjornsen  forbade  that  sternly,  and  it  caused  some 
unpleasantness.  It  was  another  indication  to  me 
of  the  inevitable  "blow-up,"  as  Hopkins  called  it, 
of  our  amicable  relations  with  these  Radiumopolites, 
and  the  increasing  urgency  of  my  effecting  my  es- 
cape, to  bring  to  my  friends  the  means  of  their 
possible  extrication.  Under  the  pretence  of  return- 
ing Goritz  to  the  sky,  from  which  (with  us)  he  had 
come,  we  secretly  buried  him  in  the  valley,  and 
there  he  lies  today. 

It  was  something  of  a  contre-temp  to  have  Goritz 
die  at  all.  It  gave  a  rather  second-hand  and  made- 
up  look  to  our  claims  to  have  come  from  the 
heavens,  and  to  the  inquiring  minds  of  our  enemies 
supplied  undesirable  data  for  starting  grave  doubts 
as  to  our  authenticity — still  another  danger  lurking 
in  our  path,  or,  as  Hopkins  gloomily  put  it, 
"another  nail  in  our  cofifins." 

Our  friend  was  King  indeed,  but  the  enthusiasm 
that  had  carried  him  to  that  eminence  lacked 
permanence.  It  could  not  be  rooted  in  racial  con- 
sanguinity, it  was  probably  constantly  decried  by 
the  little  doctors,  and  the  Professor,  to  quote  the 
epigrammatic  Hopkins,  was  a  "poor  mixer."  That 
last  word  unveiled  a  multitude  of  perils. 


CHAPTER  XV 

My  Escape 

You  must  have  observed,  sir,  that  in  my  narra- 
tive I  have  from  time  to  time  exhibited  our  variant 
and  varying  frames  or  states  of  mind  toward  the 
strange  conditions  we  were  approaching,  and  the 
still  stranger  ones  we  actually  entered.  You  have 
been  told  that  some  of  us  dreaded  to  go  on — myself 
for  instance — that  later,  diverted  or  enthralled  by 
the  strangeness  of  it  all,  we  wanted  to  go  faster, 
that  from  shrinkingly  divining  some  disaster  we 
were  lulled  into  the  anticipation  of  great  pleasure, 
and  that  when  our  actual  danger  was  reached  and 
surmounted  it  might  seem  we  should  almost  have 
resigned  ourselves  to  stay;  resigned  ourselves  to 
that  serenity  of  mind  depicted  by  Doctor  Johnson, 
from  whose  work  the  Professor  derived  the  name  he 
had  given  to  the  central  vale  of  Krocker  Land, 
where,  "such  was  the  appearance  of  security  and 
delight  which  their  retirement  afforded,  that  they 
to  whom  it  was  new  always  desired  that  it  might  be 
perpetual." 

But  it  surely  does  not  require  much  penetration 
of  feeling,  to  say  the  least,  or  sympathy  of  mind,  to 
see  that  our  position  would  very  soon  become  un- 
endurable, from  the  same  general  repugnance  in  all 
of  us  and  from  particular  motives  in  each.  To 
begin  with,  we  soon  felt  stifled  in  this  recondite 
and  obsolete  and  trivial  civilization;    the  very  cir- 

348 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  349 

cular  enclosure  which  shut  it  in  became  a  prison, 
and  after  all,  if  we  were  of  the  same  zoological 
stirps,  as  these  people,  we  had  differentiated  too 
much  for  pleasurable  association.  At  no  time  have 
I  felt  so  keenly  that  the  breath  of  the  modern  man's 
life  must  be  the  breath  of  the  world  where  it  moves 
the  fastest  and  its  breath  is  quickest. 

Then  there  was  the  wonderful  discovery  itself  to 
be  published,  the  Professor's  notes,  crowded  upon 
the  pages  of  a  notebook  he  had  most  carefully  pre- 
served, to  be  given  to  science.  Goritz  before  his 
death  yearned  for  the  gratification  of  indulgences 
to  be  purchased  by  his  new  wealth,  and,  as  he 
thought,  his  new  knowledge.  I  revolted  at  the 
surroundings,  the  snakes  and  the  periodic  sacri- 
fices, and  feared  an  inevitable  distrust  and  collision. 
Hopkins  loved  Ziliah,  but  he  had  found  in  this 
rara-avis  a  positive  promise  of  supreme  adaptation 
to  the  best  life  he  could  give  her  in  the  world.  At 
any  rate  he  wished  to  try  it. 

Our  discontent  increased,  our  impatience  chafed 
our  nerves,  and  in  hastily  stolen  conferences  we 
determined  upon  a  supreme  effort  to  escape.  We 
were  tormented  by  the  espionage  and  ruffled  man- 
ners of  the  Council  of  Thirty,  who  interminably 
buzzed  about  us,  and  had  probably  shrewdly 
detected  our  hidden  restlessness.  And  the  utter 
dullness  of  the  life!  Never  before  have  I  so  un- 
speakably realized  that  even  if  you  cannot  live  in 
the  current  of  life,  you  must  live  near  it,  hear  its 
murmurs,  watch  its  waves,  and  rejoice  in  knowing 
those  who  swim  either  with  or  against  it.  We  had 
all  been  dreadfully  disappointed  in  the  Radium- 
opolites. 

Again  and  again  we  planned  to  break  away  under 
some  pretence  of  revisiting  our  celestial  home, 
hurrying  off  and  disappearing  completely,  though 
now  we  had  made  up  our  minds  to  return  with  big 


350  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

reinforcements  of  assistance  and  to  turn  over  this 
new  continent  to  the  examination  and  gaze  of 
science.  It  seems  a  cruel  decision.  But  why  not? 
Krocker  Land  could  not  in  any  case  remain  much 
longer  concealed,  and  we  were  entitled  to  the  fruits 
of  our  adventure,  while  we  were  reasonably  confi- 
dent we  could  make  its  investiture  by  our  civiliza- 
tion safe,  humane,  undisturbing.  I  think  differ- 
ently now,  but  that  was  our  conclusion. 

"This  Ascension  business,"  as  Hopkins  called  it, 
was  just  humanly  possible  by  the  use  of  balloons, 
and  it  was  apposite  that  at  the  Professor's  enthrone- 
ment, the  aeronautics  of  the  Radiumopolites  were 
displayed  at  last.  It  very  oddly  turned  out  that 
only  the  smaller  race  played  with  the  balloons. 
The  word  is  deliberately  correct.  These  balloons 
were  a  kind  of  household  furniture  or  means  of 
diversion,  as  a  bicycle  is  with  us.  They  furnished 
inexhaustible  amusement  to  the  little  people,  but 
even  there  their  use  was  limited  to  the  very  daring 
or  the  very  light.  Almost  every  family  possessed 
one.  And  yet  more  curiously  it  was  in  the  balloon 
line  that  experiment  and  invention  were  actually 
stirring  these  ludicrous  people  to  improve  and  add 
to  what  they  knew.  This  activity  sprang  from  the 
unsatisfactory  discrimination  their  present  aero- 
nautical knowledge  made  between  light  and  heavy 
weights. 

This  ballooning  in  Krocker  Land  is  in  every 
way  anomalous  and  extraordinary,  and  like  their 
knowledge  of  transmutation  partakes  of  the  miracu- 
lous, certainly  the  previously  unsuspected. 
Science  here  is  again  in  the  presence  of  a  New  De- 
parture. The  balloons  are  filled  with  a  gas  having 
a  far  greater  buoyancy  than  pure  hydrogen  and  it 
is  derived  from  gas  wells,  themselves  of  very 
moderate  depth,  but  evidently  supplied  from  far 
more  deeply  seated  sources.     It  is  incontestable. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  351 

A  balloon  not  three  feet  in  diameter  will  levitate 
thirty  pounds! 

Except  for  the  astonishing  transmutation  this 
physical  fact  invades  the  realm  of  the  unbeliev- 
able more  deeply  than  anything  else. 

No  evidence  of  this  wide-spread  predilection 
appeared  before  the  Professor's  enthronement. 
The  suppression  of  the  sport  had  something  to  do 
with  the  ceremonial  rites  of  visiting  the  tree  shrines, 
I  believe,  the  winter  solstitial  feeding  with  human 
bodies  of  the  saurians,  and  awaiting  the  spring 
planting  of  grain.  The  opening  of  the  season,  so 
to  speak,  is  inaugurated  by  the  ascent  of  the  entire 
Areopagus,  and  after  that  the  amusement  becomes 
general. 

All  of  the  Aeropagites  are  not  equally  expert, 
and  many,  after  a  sufficient  aerial  excursion  to  meet 
the  ceremonial  requirements,  which  are  de  rigueur, 
subside  and  retire.  But  the  art  of  sailing  the  air 
is  traditionally  a  matter  of  pride,  and  the  leaders 
do  very  well.  It  was  an  adventuresome  trip  for 
them  to  have  attempted  reaching  the  outskirts  of 
Krocker  Land  when  we  met  them  softly  settling 
down  on  the  Deer  Pels,  and  it  later  proved  almost 
indubitable  that  they  were  the  customary  political 
bosses,  Javan,  Put,  Hul,  Peleg  and  Hadad,  though 
a  closer  inspection  of  these  worthies  corrected  some 
of  our  first  impressions,  expressed  before  in  that 
chapter  of  this  narrative. 

The  experimental  efforts  at  improvement  arose 
from  the  discontent  and  envy  of  the  heavier  indivi- 
duals over  the  glad  pastimes  and  disportments  of 
the  lighter  ones.  You  see  the  method  involved 
the  use  of  at  least  three  balloons,  one  from  each 
shoulder  and  one  from  the  waist,  and  as  three  feet 
diameter  was  the  maximum  size,  safely  manipu- 
lated, those  weighing  over  ninety  pounds — and 
there  were  a  great  number  of  these,  almost  all 


352  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

adults  of  the  taller  race,  and  many  women  of  the 
smaller — were  simply  excluded  from  this  diversion. 
Hinc  illae  lacrymae,  and  hence  also  the  energy  of 
invention  to  overcome  this  disparity. 

When  the  sports  began,  nothing  could  have  been 
more  interesting  and  spectacular.  Groups  would 
rise  together,  separate,  and  reunite.  This  air- 
swimming  was  effected  by  fans  attached  to  the 
wrists.  But  the  Aeropagites  revealed  a  superior 
guidance,  at  least  we  imagined  so,  for  when  their 
floating  shapes  had  thrown  shadows  on  the  il- 
lumined summits  of  the  Deer  Pels,  they  had  been 
provided  with  those  inexplicable  tubes,  and  up  to 
the  moment  of  my  escape  these  miracles  had  not 
been  repeated.  And  the  NEW  tubes — where  were 
they? 

The  proper  state  of  the  weather  was  indispens- 
able and  only  in  complete  calms  would  the  amus- 
ing exhibition  take  place.  As  in  all  exercises, 
bolder  spirits  attempted  their  excursions  under 
perilous  conditions  in  high  or  moderate  winds,  but 
these  had  often  resulted  in  loss  of  life,  the  unhappy 
aeronaut  falling  or  actually  being  driven  headlong 
like  a  fly  or  moth  beyond  the  valley  into  the  soli- 
tudes and  dangers  of  its  encircling  zones. 

The  harness — for  it  is  nothing  less — which  the 
aeronaut  assumes  holds  him  easily  and  steadily  to 
the  three  bubbles  above  him,  and,  as  he  generally 
can  regulate  his  flight  with  his  hands,  his  indeter- 
minate control  is  over  his  descent.  Few  accidents 
occur.  The  balloons  are  symmetrized  in  position 
over  him,  the  one  at  the  waist  being  nearest  his 
body  and  the  two  outside  bags  higher  but  on  a  level 
with  each  other.  His  control  is  entirely  over  the 
central  balloon  which  he  may  quickly  deplete  by 
opening  a  valve.  Variations  of  adjustment  and  of 
apparatus,  as  might  be  imagined,  are  numerous, 
and  individual  tastes  or  designs  introduce  great 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  353 

diversity.  There  may  be  four  or  five  or  even  six 
balloons  employed,  but  in  this  case  they  are  made 
much  smaller.  The  balloons  may  be  of  different 
sizes.  Along  the  direction  of  increasing  the  number 
of  maximum  sized  balloons  lay  the  hopes  of  the 
bigger  people,  but  there  had  been  some  bad  mis- 
haps, and  the  balance  or  adjustment  proved  diffi- 
cult. The  levitation  became  unmanageable,  and 
the  descents  were  often  appallingly  rapid  and 
shockingly  tragic. 

When  these  air  revels  began — as  they  did  at  the 
Professor's  coronation — minus  the  crown — we  mo- 
mentarily seized  upon  the  project  of  adapting  this 
locomotion  for  our  flight.  It  required  a  very  brief 
inspection  to  utterly  expose  the  hopelessness  of 
this  scheme  and  still  more  strongly  occurred  to  us 
the  prohibition  from  attempting  to  leave  together. 
Such  a  wholesale  evacuation,  unless  accomplished 
as  one  might  say  de  coup  de  tonnerre,  would  never  be 
practicable,  and  as  Hopkins  ruefully  reminded  us, 
"Ziliah  may  be  an  angel,  but  I'd  rather  sour  on  her 
prospects  of  being  a  balloonist." 

Literally  I  was  the  only  free  man,  now  that 
Goritz  was  gone,  and  literally  upon  me  devolved 
the  task  of  getting  back,  rousing  the  world,  and 
effecting  my  friends'  release.  How  should,  how 
could  I  do  it? 

Always  distressed  by  this  inseparable  anxiety, 
the  trip  to  the  Gold  Makers  suddenly  appealed  to 
my  searching  mind  with  a  strong  likelihood  that  the 
great  river  we  had  skirted  might  carry  me  safely, 
and,  too,  with  a  swiftness  beyond  our  hopes  to 
liberty,  though  when  more  seriously  considered,  it 
might  prove,  I  saw,  to  be  only  the  Liberty  of  Death. 

Immediately,  therefore,  after  our  return  I  found 
a  convenient  occasion  to  discuss  this  project  with 
the  Professor  and  Hopkins.  It  struck  them  both 
favorably,  though  they  rather  shrank  from  recom- 


354  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

mending  it,  as  it  was  equally  clear  that  if  the  river 
could  be,  as  it  were,  employed  at  all,  it  would  prob- 
ably prove  to  be  an  obstreperous  and  mischievous 
servant.     However,  that  way  lay  my  path. 

Under  the  pretence — hardly  ever  now  were  we 
free  from  some  dogging  spy  at  our  elbows — of 
wishing  to  report  more  faithfully  the  operations  of 
the  Gold  Makers  in  that  book  which  he  was 
writing  on  Radiumopolis,  and  which  somehow  had 
now  captivated  the  fancy  of  the  Council,  the  Pro- 
fessor (King  Bjornsen),  Hopkins  and  myself  re- 
visited the  distant  village.  Although  we  were  not 
permitted  to  go  unattended,  it  was  easy  enough  for 
me  to  engage  the  Samoyedes  in  conversation,  and 
ask  them  about  their  knowledge  of  the  great  river. 
They  spoke  quite  freely  about  it,  and  proved  not 
only  willing  to  tell  me  all  they  knew,  but  discour- 
aged my  plan  to  navigate  the  river  to  its  mouth,  by  a 
not  altogether  lucid  account  of  the  attempt  of  one  of 
their  fishermen  to  venture  on  the  river  beyond  the 
rocky  gateway  frowning  on  them  to  the  west,  and 
of  his  receiving  some  sort  of  violent  treatment  at 
its  hands,  he  being  thrown  ashore  and  returning 
along  the  banks  of  the  stream,  reaching  home 
almost  more  dead  than  alive.  So  ran  their  broken 
and  obscure  story. 

Where  was  this  man?  "Dead."  Were  any  of 
his  family,  descendants,  acquaintances,  intimates, 
living?  "Oh — yes — he  knew  everybody."  After 
some  painstaking  examination,  accompanied  by  an 
immense  amount  of  irrelevant  recollections  of  what 
he  did  after  his  return,  how  he  died,  and  how  he 
was  buried,  his  size,  his  strength,  his  obstinacy, 
and  a  recital  of  the  disposition  of  his  slender  estate, 
I  uncovered  a  trail  of  associations  leading  to  an  old 
blind  man  who  was  yet  alive,  and  who,  it  was 
supposed,  knew  a  little  more  exactly  than  anyone 
else  what  this  daring  disciple  of  Iza^ak  Walton  had 
seen  or  experienced. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  355 

This  ancient  was  located,  but  it  proved  a  moun- 
tainous task  to  extract  much  intelligible  informa- 
tion from  him,  partly  because  he  was  dreadfully 
deaf,  hopelessly  stupid,  and  so  incoherent  that  the 
interpreters  chosen  to  interview  him  appeared  to 
be  at  their  wits'  ends  to  make  him  out,  and  more 
particularly  because  he  was  himself  suspicious  of 
his  examiners. 

I  at  last  came  away  with  the  impression  that  the 
man  had  floated  oflf  peacefully  on  the  swelling 
breast  of  the  flood  as  it  emerged  from  the  broad 
lake-like  embay ment  in  the  Gold  Makers'  land,  and 
had  been  carried  along  for  a  great  distance  at  a 
rapid  rate  but  not  with  much  or  any  danger,  until 
the  descent  brought  him  to  a  change  in  the  bed  or 
banks  of  the  river  (what  this  change  was  could  not 
be  determined),  and  that  he  had  even  survived  this, 
but  that  later  he  jumped  overboard  from  his  raft 
(for  raft  it  was),  and  reached  the  shore  and,  satis- 
fied with  his  adventure,  had  made  his  way  back  by 
almost  incredible  exertions. 

Singular  as  it  may  seem  to  you,  sir,  my  deduc- 
tions from  this  incomplete  story,  bristling  as  it 
might  seem  with  unimagined,  untold  dangers,  were, 
that  the  river  maintained  a  full  flow,  was  seldom 
interrupted  by  obstructions,  had  some  serious 
breaks  in  its  grade,  which,  however,  did  not  involve 
actual  falls,  and,  if  violent  at  any  point,  was  not 
unnegotiable,  as  you  say.  The  fisherman  evidently 
passed  the  worst  place  alive,  but  did  not  survive 
the  shock.  He  lost  his  nerve  and  got  ashore — and 
besides,  in  his  case,  there  were  most  valid  reasons 
for  objecting  to  a  lengthier  transit. 

This  favorable  interpretation,  so  far  as  it  helped 
me  to  make  up  my  mind,  was  really  itself  helped  by 
a  kind  of  desperation.  It  was  impossible  for  me  to 
remain  in  this  solitude  any  longer.  An  almost 
fierce  monomania  of  repulsion  was  growing  within 


356  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

me,  and,  of  some  natural  hardihood  myself,  this 
excitant  for  action  bestowed  on  me  an  almost  un- 
natural indifference  to  danger. 

Later  I  told  my  friends  I  had  made  up  my  mind. 
Whatever  perils  lay  in  my  way  I  would  cope  with 
them  as  I  could — but  GO  I  would,  and  as  an  avenue 
of  escape  that  seemed  to  promise  the  quickest 
release  I  preferred  the  river.  There  were  many 
solemn  and  affecting  conferences — continued  as  we 
had  opportunity — and  the  preparations  were,  so 
far  as  the  resources  allowed,  carefully  made.  They 
were  indeed  so  wisely  made  that  I  reached  the 
Siberian  Sea  safe  and  sound.  The  intervention  of 
Luck  or  Providence  in  assisting  him,  is  consciously 
or  unconsciously  expected  by  every  Arctic  explorer, 
probably  by  any  explorer;  and  with  the  contribu- 
tion of  his  best  judgment,  unsparing  effort,  and 
personal  fortitude,  he  is  inclined  to  put  the  blame 
of  his  failure — if  he  fails — on  those  two  omnipotent 
factors.  If  he  succeeds,  a  brave  man  is  probably 
not  less  inclined  to  give  them  the  credit. 

We  selected  the  best  rifle  of  our  little  collection, 
stored  all  of  our  ammunition,  depending  on  the 
ingenuity  of  Hopkins  and  the  King  to  reconcile  the 
Radiumopolites  to  this  sequestration  of  their 
beloved  thunder,  the  Professor  entrusted  to  me 
some  pencil  scribbled  papers,  and  then  we  turned 
our  attention  to  my  personal  equipment.  I 
believed  that  in  a  week's  time  at  the  most  I  would 
be  enabled  to  reach  the  coast.  We  all  felt  that, 
assuming  a  parallel  conformation  of  the  various 
zonal  strips  we  had  traversed  entering  Rasselas, 
their  proximity  on  the  west  argued  for  a  probable 
narrowing  of  their  width.  To  have  attempted  the 
eastward  route  over  the  path  we  had  taken  had  no 
attractions  for  me,  and  from  the  first  we  felt  my 
absence  would  then  be  more  quickly  discovered, 
and  myself  willy-nilly  overhauled. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  357 

But  later  we  turned  our  first  plans  upside-down. 
Hopkins  said  my  departure  should  be  a  public 
event,  that  we  would  never  be  able  to  accomplish 
anything  satisfactorily  in  this  hidden,  secret 
fashion. 

"Take  the  bull  by  the  horns;  fly  a  high  kite  and 
put  it  up  to  'em  this  way.  Tell  'em  the  shade, 
spirit,  spook,  anything  that's  handy  of  Antoine 
Goritz,  has  appeared  to  you,  and  told  you  to  take  to 
the  water ;  that  big  things  will  be  brought  back  that 
way;  that  the  Serpent  God  wishes  it —  Oh,  any- 
thing. Hand  it  out  strong  and  lively  and  scary. 
I  guess  that'll  rehabilitate  Goritz  too,  give  him  the 
saecula  saeculorum  sort  of  effect,  and  it  won't  do  us 
any  harm  either  to  keep  up  our  show  of  being  on 
intimate  terms  with  ghosts  and  such." 

"Will  they  believe  it?"  I  asked. 

"Sure.  Why  not?  What  else  have  they  got  to 
do?  They're  made  that  way.  All  of  these  rub- 
bishy people  who  came  into  existence  before  gas  and 
electricity,  the  telephone,  trolley  car,  pasteurized 
milk  and  incubators,  will  believe  anything  you  tell 
'em  about  goblins  and  witches  and  scarecrows  and 
second  sight  and  dreams  and  invisible  voices.  Try 
it,  Alfred.     It's  a  cinch." 

Well,  we  did  try  it  and  it  was,  to  put  it  that  way, 
an  unalleviated  success.  Still  there  was  a  fly  in  the 
ointment,  in  a  way.  Ziliah  told  Hopkins  the  little 
doctors  were  overjoyed — they  wanted  me  out  of  the 
road.  I  asked  the  Professor  and  Hopkins  what 
they  thought  about  that  and  they  both  agreed 
they  could  take  care  of  themselves.  This  upshot  of 
the  matter  was  indeed  a  rather  disturbing  surprise, 
but — my  departure  was  a  triumph! 

The  resources  of  Radiumopolis  were  at  my  dis- 
posal— food,  clothing,  and  although  direction  or 
information  could  not  be  furnished,  the  physical 
requisitions  for  combating  hunger  and  cold  were 


358  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

generously  provided.  This  alacrity  on  the  part  of 
the  little  rulers  was  unmistakably  connected  with 
their  expectation  that  the  adventure  would  be  the 
last  of  me.  They  were  obedient  to  the  injunctions 
of  King  Bjornsen,  but  their  subserviency  was 
hypocritical  in  its  protestations  of  devotion. 

Unluckily  there  was  the  most  helpless  ignorance 
of  boat  making  to  contend  with,  and  the  additional 
provocation  to  despair  that  there  were  no  tools  to 
make  them  with.  This  historic  fisherman  had 
tried  to  do  the  trick  with  a  raft.  I  would  take  a 
raft  too.  What  else?  The  Samoyedes  built  them 
well  and  strongly,  and  under  my  uncontrolled 
supervision  a  narrow  raft  made  of  two  tiers  of  logs, 
crossed  in  position  and  bound  together  with  the 
strongest  ropes,  was  prepared.  On  this  a  woven 
hamper  was  firmly  fastened,  and  in  that  were  placed 
my  provisions  (tortillas,  and  dried  meat)and  extra 
clothing,  and  rugs,  and  a  sleeping  bag  of  sheepskin. 
A  pack  strapped  to  my  back  carried  Goritz's  gold 
souvenirs,  some  radium  masses,  a  compass,  chrono- 
meter, matches  and  a  selection  of  fishing  hooks  and 
lines.  A  gun  was  almost  riveted  to  my  side,  so 
immobile  did  it  seem.  But  the  tour  deforce  of  fore- 
sight was  involved  in  the  insertion  of  two  short 
posts  (five  feet  high)  at  the  stern,  though  distant 
from  the  raft's  edge  by  about  three  feet,  and  dis- 
tant from  each  other  by  three  feet.  To  each  of 
these  posts,  at  the  level  of  my  shoulders,  was 
reamed  a  hole  for  two  looped  leathern  thongs,  so 
adjusted  that  standing  between  the  posts  I  could 
insert  my  arms  in  the  loops,  clasp  my  hands  across 
my  breast,  and  secure  a  chancery  that  nothing 
short  of  dislocation  of  the  raft  itself  could  break,  or 
the  avulsion  of  my  own  arms  from  their  sockets, 
while  in  an  instant  I  could  free  myself. 

The  Samoyedes  rigged  up  a  rude  steering  tiller 
which  of  course  was  indispensable.     It  consisted  of 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  359 

a  girdle  suspended  from  a  cross  piece,  binding  the 
two  abovementioned  posts,  through  which  a  stick 
paddle  was  swung.  It  was  decidedly  awkward,  as 
it  displaced  me  from  my  position  of  safety  between 
the  posts,  and  therefore  at  critical  moments  might 
prove  quite  worthless,  if  not  a  positive  danger. 
Here  I  must  count  on  my  own  agility  and  strength. 
Besides  this  tiller  half  a  dozen  poles  and  as  many 
oars  were  tied  to  the  posts  projecting  above  them 
like  short  masts.  These  might  prove  very  service- 
able. But  there  was  also  a  last  Atlantean  touch. 
Two  of  the  three  foot  balloons  were  firmly  tied  to 
the  crosspiece  of  the  upright  posts.  It  was  the  Pro- 
fessor's suggestion,  and  I  am  positive  that  at  a 
critical  twist  it  saved  matters. 

That  was  about  all,  except  that  some  further 
records  were  given  me  by  Bjornsen  and  they  were 
consigned  to  the  great  woven  hamper.  Well, 
some  learned  societies  will  be  saved  head  splitting 
disputes,  and  no-less  head  dizzying  theories,  the 
former  perhaps  not  altogether  harmless.  That 
hamper  never  came  through. 

By  the  beginning  of  July  I  was  ready  for  the 
plunge.  The  day  was  auspicious,  clear  but  torrid, 
with  the  stationary  sun  wrapped  in  luminous 
clouds,  and  its  overwhelming  rival  coursing  a  higher 
altitude  in  unchecked  splendor.  The  great  river 
assumed  an  enticing  placidity;  its  tranquil  current 
had  even  lost  the  chained  bubbles  floating  from  the 
shattering  cascades  that  freed  it  from  the  Canon  of 
Promise.  And  Radiumopolis  had  bodily  trans- 
ferred itself  to  the  scene;  the  banks,  the  hills,  the 
roofs  of  a  few  abandoned  sheds  were  closely 
crowded,  by  a  wonderfully  variegated  multitude, 
intensely  interested,  subdued  into  a  faintly  mur- 
murous throng  by  the  excitement  of  admiration. 
I  was  something  more  than  a  hero  that  day.  Obey- 
ing the  summons  of  the  spirit  of  my  former  com- 


360  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

panion,  I  was  to  rejoin  him  along  that  trackless 
pathway  of  the  great  river,  whose  banks  touched 
heaven,  in  whose  inaccessible  depths  dwelt  all  the 
demons  of  death  and  terror. 

There  was  a  reservation  of  space,  at  the  point 
where  my  raft  swung  uneasily,  for  the  King,  the 
Council,  Hopkins  and  Ziliah,  and  the  magistrates 
of  the  city,  and  only  a  Hogarth  could  have  done 
justice  to  that  commixture  of  physiognomies,  the 
odd  and  contrasted  figures,  interspersed  with  the 
taller  men  and  women,  all  wearing  their  regalia,  and 
the  massed  battalions  beyond  them  in  holiday  ar- 
ray. Some  daring  aeronauts  circled  in  the  air 
above  me.  Flowers  did  not  figure  in  the  festivals 
nor  in  the  predilections  of  the  Radiumopolites, 
though  blue  and  yellow  blossoms  lit  their  land- 
scapes with  a  smile  of  floral  prettiness  that  was  very 
bewitching,  and  their  own  blue  and  yellow  tunics, 
or  coats,  indicated  some  sympathy  with  these 
colors.  On  this  occasion  I  was  presented  with  some 
flat  pincushion-like  mats  made  up  of  these  flowers 
by  some  blushing  girls,  and  from  the  laughter — 
gentle  and  decorous — that  this  evoked,  I  believed 
they  evinced  a  warmer  sentiment  than  regret.  Of 
course  my  mission,  as  publicly  declared,  precluded 
my  probable  return,  or,  at  least,  it  meant  my  long 
absence.  By  the  Council  doubtless,  certainly  by  a 
few  undisguised  enemies  in  it,  it  was  hoped  that  it 
meant  my  wholesale  and  irremediable  destruction. 

As  I  shook  hands  with  all  I  came  at  last  to  the 
Professor  (King  Bjornsen)  and  Hopkins.  Our 
hands  closed  tightly  and  we  dared  not  look  each 
other  in  the  face.  I  heard  Hopkins  whisper, 
"Heaven  help  you,"  and  if  prayer  reaches  the 
throne  of  Grace  when  it  is  consecrated  by  the 
heart's  holiest  hope,  that  prayer,  I  know,  ascended 
to  its  place.  As  the  Professor  embraced  me,  he 
loosened  the  belt  of  lead  I  had  worn  and  replaced  it 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  361 

with  a  heavy  gold  girdle  whose  big  buckle  bore  the 
carven  Serpent.  That,  Mr.  Link,  I  have  never 
shown  to  anyone.  Diaz,  Huerta  nor  Angelica  have 
ever  seen  it.  It  will  amaze  you.  The  Professor 
removed  it  from  his  own  waist.  There  was  a  half 
hushed  remonstrance.  But  the  King's  gift  was 
interpreted  favorably,  and  as  I  received  it  a  shout 
went  up,  and  even  the  Council,  for  prudent  reasons 
possibly,  indulged  in  a  titter  of  endorsement.  My 
raft  was  pushed  by  willing  hands  into  the  stream. 
Its  prow  or  front  yielded  to  the  gentle  urgency  of 
the  current,  and  turned.  I  stood  upon  the  ham- 
per, and  waved  my  hat — not  the  beehive  contrap- 
tion but  a  sheepskin  fez — and  again  the  Radium- 
opolites,  now  strangely  stirred  by  this  solemn 
gliding  departure  of  a  single  man  into  the  unknown, 
broke  spontaneously  into  one  of  their  sing-song, 
not  quite  unmusical,  and  not  exactly  musical, 
chants,  which  rising  in  pitch  until  it  swelled  to  me 
over  the  water,  almost  seemed,  I  drearily  thought, 
like  a  dirge.  Its  crooning  wail  still  filled  my  ears 
when  all  details  of  the  multitude  were  lost,  and  the 
shadow  of  the  great  gateway  of  rock,  into  which  the 
river  was  relentlessly  carrying  me  fell  across  the 
glassy  wave  that  had  now  become  my  path  to 
liberty. 

There  was  now  nothing  to  be  thought  of  but  self- 
preservation  amid  unknown  and  unsuspected  dan- 
gers. I  seized  some  bread — tortilla — a  hunk  of  the 
dried,  not  unpalatable  meat,  and  drank  some  wine. 
This  interjected  meal  raised  my  spirits.  A  momen- 
tary sang-froid  replaced  my  nervousness,  and 
indeed,  so  great  was  my  exultation  at  the  thought  of 
regaining  the  vanished  w^orld,  of  liberation  from  an 
unendurable  stagnation  and  the  bald,  horrible 
misery  of  a  silly  paganism,  that  I  became  almost 
cheerful.  That  mood  did  not  last  long.  Already 
I  had  passed  the  portal  of  the  deep  canon.     The 


362  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

red  sandstone  walls  rose  in  sheer  precipices  above 
me,  and  were  rising  visibly  higher  beyond.  A  few 
shrunken  pine  trees  clung  here  and  there  to  shelves 
of  rock,  while  through  some  upward  openings,  and 
leading  into  transverse  valleys,  I  caught  glimpses 
of  the  dark  green  motionless  tops  of  the  serried 
trees  that  here  marked  the  amphitheater  of  the 
Pine  Tree  Gredin. 

The  grimness  of  the  swiftly  developing  descent 
almost  appalled  me  now.  I  was  on  the  back  of  a 
resistless  flood  not  yet  maddened  into  a  fury  of 
impetuous  violence  by  opposition,  nor  quickened 
into  the  onset  of  a  galloping  torrent  by  sharper 
changes  in  its  gradient,  but  doubtless  bringing  me 
and  my  smoothly  drifting  raft  into  just  such  wild 
vicissitudes.  Could  either  one  or  the  other  survive 
them?  The  clumsy  boat  beneath  my  feet  was  a 
willing  servant.  It  responded  to  the  strokes  of  the 
tiller,  and  my  dismal  forebodings  were  momentarily 
forgotten  in  the  amusement  it  gave  me  to  swing  the 
raft  from  side  to  side  of  the  still  broad  waterway. 
As  the  light  became  dimmer,  and  a  half  crepuscular 
dusk  crept  into  the  deepening  fissure  over  whose 
topmost  edges  the  sky  hung  like  an  illuminated 
ribbon,  I  felt  the  grip  of  a  solemn  dread,  the  pre- 
current  rigor  of  that  deadly  rigor  animae  which 
palsies  the  heart. 

Still  on  and  on,  in  a  course  that  scarcely  deviated 
from  a  straight  line,  and  thus  safely  conducted  us 
(to  me  my  little  barge  shared,  as  a  sentient  thing, 
our  common  danger,  and  it  alleviated  my  solitude 
to  fancifully,  as  children  do,  personify  it,  talk  to  it, 
praise  it)  toward  that  distant  goal,  the  ice-packed 
shore  of  Krocker  Land.  The  bed  of  the  stream  lay 
in  a  rectilinear  joint  and  the  weathering  on  either 
side  had  not  greatly  widened  the  aperture  above. 
The  picture  changed  only  in  detail.  The  frowning 
sides,  walls  scarcely  relieved  by  any  vegetation  or, 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  363 

which,  if  there,  was  too  far  above  me  for  my  eyes  to 
detect,  offered  no  distinction  in  color.  Nature  had 
not  here  spread  her  palette  of  blending  hues,  those 
that  over  the  silent  expanses  of  the  Grand  Canon 
of  the  Colorado  transfer  the  colors  of  sunset  to  the 
immutable  stone.  It  was  the  utter  sternness,  the 
harsh,  immense  uniformity  of  the  still  increasing 
precipices  that  crushed  the  soul.  I  seemed  like  an 
atom  in  the  void,  a  plaything  of  nature;  for  a 
moment,  and  for  a  moment  only,  seen  in  this  out- 
raged solitude,  to  become  then  a  part  too  of  the 
lifeless  panorama. 

The  cliffs  rose  now  a  thousand  feet  or  more,  and 
sensibly  receded,  the  dislodged  blocks  from  their 
summits  building  an  awful  fringe  of  titanic  boulders, 
angular  monoliths,  at  the  water's  edge.  Beyond 
me  stretched  the  unvarying  avenue,  the  shooting 
river  seeming  far  away,  motionless  and  fixed  like  a 
congealed  mass,  though  every  particle  of  it  was 
flying  onward  with  fresh  acceleration.  There 
could  be  no  doubt  of  that.  Points  observed  on 
the  shores  were  more  and  more  rapidly  passed. 
This  hastening  pace  became  to  me  a  portent  of  dis- 
aster. The  angry  river,  placable  at  first,  luring  its 
audacious  victim  onward,  now  in  sullen  mastery, 
with  a  rising  temper,  as  if  impatient  over  its  own 
leniency  threatened  to  hurl  the  petty  intruder,  the 
graceless  little  egotist,  into  eternity.  It  would 
have  done  with  him,  washing  his  lifeless  corse  on  its 
sullied  waters  to  the  depthless  ocean,  a  memento 
and  a  warning,  if  so  paltry  an  object  could  be  either. 
Thus  I  seemed  to  divine  the  storm  of  its  gathering 
wrath. 

So  far  the  great  volume  of  water  had  been  accom- 
modated in  the  channel,  and  the  surface  of  the  river 
was  almost  smooth.  But  with  the  increasing  speed 
the  channel  narrowed,  and  the  water  became  tur- 
bulent.    Waves  rushed  on  and  out  from  the  shores 


364  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

and  rolling  backs  of  water  chased  each  other  in  the 
center  of  the  stream.  Fortunately,  though  the 
waves  washed  the  raft  from  end  to  end  and  some- 
times drove  me  to  the  protection  of  the  upright 
posts,  the  river  maintained  its  straight  course,  and 
we  still  rode  gallantly  onward.  There  were  sudden 
dips,  down  which  we  slid  with  alarming  velocity, 
that  made  me  shudder,  but  nowhere  a  rock,  a 
breaker,  no  treacherous  bend,  no  falls,  not  even  yet 
the  dashing  turmoil  of  a  rapid.  What  invention  of 
malice  was  this? 

Suddenly  my  eye  noticed  a  prominent  bulge  in 
the  river,  perhaps  three  or  four  miles  ahead.  It 
lay  about  midstream.  Here  was  some  formidable 
interruption?  Was  there  a  sluice-way  on  either 
side  of  it?  If  so  I  could  avoid  it;  the  balloons 
helped  my  buoyancy.  The  raft  trembled.  Ah, 
already  it  felt  some  premonitions  of  the  tussle. 
Yes,  a  decided — no,  not  a  bulge  after  all ;  it  was  a 
drop,  the  river  fell  over  a  ledge,  but  apparently  a 
low  one,  so  low  that  the  deep  volume  filled  it  up, 
making  the  transition  from  above  to  below  it  incon- 
siderable, and  below — I  could  just  see — was  retar- 
dation, and  expansion;  the  river  moved  there  over 
aflat!  Curious,  such  relenting! 

"Have  no  fear,  Old  Boy,"  I  shouted,  stamping 
the  logs  beneath  me  to  awaken  their  attention, 
"stick  together,  take  a  brace  and  over  we  go,  safe 
and  sound." 

The  spot  seemed  to  rush  towards  us.  For  an 
instant  I  hesitated.  Should  I  scoot  to  the  sides 
and  avoid  the  plunge?  Was  it  a  trap?  The  tortu- 
ous flow  sideways  might  smash  us  against  the  rocks, 
and  then — Ah!  then,  requiescat  in  pace.  Down 
the  center,  sink  or  swim,  there  was  no  help  for  it — 
once  over,  thrice  saved — a  wetting  perhaps,  perhaps 
a  mouthful  of  water. 

The  boiling  water  lashed  us,  and  something  like 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  365 

a  moan  came  to  me  from  the  shores,  almost  as  if  the 
baffled  river  gnashed  in  its  impotent  disgust.  I 
steered  for  the  rounded  mound  in  front;  a  straining 
creak  from  the  grinding  logs,  a  sharper  bolt  ahead — 
I  clung  to  the  posts,  and  the  neglected  tiller  dragged 
behind — another  sprint  and  I  saw  the  shelving  face 
of  the  water  below  the  drop  tossing  furiously. 
Over,  with  an  upward  jolt;  that  was  the  greatest 
danger  of  all.  But  the  sturdy  frame  held  together, 
and  then  in  a  tussle  of  bristling  waves,  noisy,  each 
one  striking  over  its  neighbor's  shoulder  at  us,  and 
I  hard  at  the  tiller,  we  raced  down  the  slope,  inun- 
dated, wrenched,  even  pitched  a  little,  but  quite 
safe,  quite  sound.  I  could  not  restrain  my  impulse 
to  shout,  though  a  moment  later,  as  the  mocking 
echoes  smote  my  ear,  fear  stilled  my  voice,  and 
stunned  conscience  whispered :  "Pride  goeth  before 
a  fall." 

The  raft  swam  later  into  the  center  of  a  lake-like 
space,  in  a  welter  of  bubbles  and  foam  from  the 
cascading  water.  The  cliffs  here  declined,  and  to 
the  north  a  pass  led  upwards  at  whose  termination 
on  the  waterside  two  deer  were  actually  drinking. 
Had  they  heard  me  shout?  Their  undisturbed 
assurance  denied  it.  But  now  they  caught  sight  of 
me  and  were  retreating  with  backward  glances  as 
they  halted  on  the  grass-lined  trail.  I  was  in  the 
Deer  Pels. 

I  steered  my  craft,  which  had  now  gained  the 
prestige  of  an  actual  companionship,  toward  the 
shore,  drew  out  one  of  the  poles,  and  poled  it  care- 
fully inshore  at  a  sandy  brink  not  far  from  the  foot- 
prints of  the  deer.  I  was  very  quiet  now,  so  as  not 
to  frighten  away  the  animals  who  watched  me  from 
a  high  point.  Their  presence  delighted  me,  and 
reinforced  my  courage.  Had  they  been  at  my  side 
I  could  not  have  raised  a  hand  against  them,  so 
fraternal  and  human  did  they  seem.     But  oh,  for  a 


366  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

voice  to  answer  my  own!    I  talked  to  myself,  but 
not  loudly.     I  dreaded  to  wake  those  jeering  echoes. 

The  sunlight  streamed  through  the  pass,  and  I 
went  up  a  short  distance  very  softly,  for  the  deer 
were  vigilant,  but  still  remained  where  I  could  see 
them.  I  lay  down  on  a  grassy  knoll  and  dried  my- 
self. Then  I  returned  to  the  raft  and  picked  out 
some  food.  Much  of  it  was  wet  and  the  contents 
of  the  hamper  needed  overhauling  and  drying.  I 
made  a  fire,  finding  some  chance  sticks  and  wood, 
and  in  the  one  kettle  left  to  us,  and  which  Hopkins 
had  given  me,  I  actually  made  a  stew  which  tasted 
divine. 

Then  I  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  and  looked 
about.  I  could  see  the  pine  trees'  shadow  east- 
ward, the  rolling  hill  land  of  the  Pels  about  me,  and 
beyond,  westward,  the  big  plateau  of  the  aquatic 
trough,  and  then  I  thought  I  caught  the  pale, 
fluctuating,  gushing  pillars  of  the  Nimbus  and,  as 
had  often  happened  from  other  points,  glimpses  of 
the  pinnacled  and  snow-capped  Rim.  I  momen- 
tarily doubted  my  own  resolve.  Should  I  abandon 
the  raft  and  travel  over  the  land  to  the  coast?  But 
that  awful  crevice  of  the  Nimbus  rose  threateningly 
to  mind.  I  feared  it.  Before  it  the  untried  terrors 
of  that  descent  to  the  coast  by  the  imprisoned 
plunging  stream  actually  looked  inviting.  Per- 
haps too  the  worst  was  over.  And  then  the  quick- 
ness of  it.  Twenty-four  hours  more  and  I  would 
be  released.  Released?  How?  Thrown  on  a  piti- 
less coast,  beleaguered  by  the  endless  ice!  What 
madness  was  this.  Safety,  a  kind  of  animal  happi- 
ness, at  least,  had  been  mine  in  the  sleeping  vale  of 
Rasselas.  But  now — ?  I  shuddered,  and  the 
swarming  rogues  of  despair  and  foreboding  rose  in 
clouds  like  gnats  from  a  shaken  bush.  It  was  an 
instant  when  a  man's  heart  seems  to  weaken  into 
water. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  367 

I  had  slowly  retraced  my  way,  and  there  I  stood 
at  the  edge  of  the  waterway,  one  foot  lifted  to  step 
upon  the  raft,  to  all  appearances  a  man  calmly  bent 
upon  the  fulfillment  of  his  purpose.  And  yet  all 
the  while  I  was  beset  with  conflicting  and  warring 
thoughts.  It  was  so  as  I  took  the  sleeping  bag  and 
a  rug  or  so  and  tied  them  to  the  posts,  arguing 
almost  unwittingly  that,  were  the  hamper  swept 
away,  I  would  thus  save  them.  And  then  blindly 
I  crammed  my  pack — ready  at  any  crisis  for  my 
back — with  food.  It  was  even  so  as  I  took  my 
place  on  the  raft,  as  I  pushed  it  off  from  the  shore, 
as  I  maneuvered  it  into  the  streamway,  even  as  I 
took  the  tiller  and  guided  my  boat  on  to  the  fastest 
current.  The  automatic  force  of  some  ulterior 
prevention  just  kept  me  in  the  chosen  line  of  work, 
unconsciously  and  yet  irreversibly.     Strange! 

Again  the  darkness  of  the  canon  walls  fell  around 
me,  and  then  only  the  subdued  mind  rose  and  re- 
formed, as  it  were,  visibly,  my  unalterable  deter- 
mination. And  indeed  now  there  no  longer  was 
room  for  incertitude.  The  rush  forward  keyed 
every  sense  into  a  vivid  expectancy.  The  bed  of 
the  river  had  become  more  gorge-like,  the  uneven 
and  projecting  cornice  edges  of  the  rock  on  either 
side  sent  back  the  bounding  water,  and  the  surface 
around  me  was  filled  with  leaping  waves.  The 
course  though,  most  luckily,  remained  almost 
undeviatingly  straight.  To  have  engineered  a 
curve  or  any  sharp  deflection  would  have  been 
almost  impossible  at  the  rapid  swing  the  raft  was 
taking  in  the  descent,  which,  however,  hardly 
varied  from  my  previous  experience.  It  was  diffi- 
cult enough  to  keep  "my  keel"  steady,  with  the 
constant  tendency  of  the  logs  to  throw  themselves 
across  the  stream.  It  was  buffeted  by  the  "rollers" 
sent  inward  from  the  shores,  and  the  rapid  pull  of 
the  midstream  was  itself  interrupted  or  diverted  by 


368  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

the  development  of  short  waves,  that  chased  down 
the  center  of  the  channel,  and  that  indicated  obs- 
structions  or  inequalities  in  the  bed  over  which  the 
water  was  impetuously  pouring. 

It  was  only  by  the  stiff  est  exertions  that  I  was 
enabled  to  keep  the  raft  headed  true,  and,  as  it  was, 
over  the  rougher  passages  it  was  swept  with  water. 
I  was  drenched,  the  spray  and  waves  splashed  and 
rose  upon  me.  I  now  realized  the  indispensable 
assistance  given  by  the  posts  and  the  unbreakable 
loops,  one  of  which  at  least  was  constantly  in  use. 
The  management  of  the  tiller,  in  this  half  imprison- 
ment, was  awkward,  but  in  spite  of  strains,  shift- 
ings,  violent  jolts  and  lunges  the  raft  shot  well  along 
the  center,  and  did  not  seriously  deviate  from  an 
axial  position. 

It  was  evident,  too,  as  we  swept  onward,  though 
my  attention  was  too  eagerly  fixed  on  the  recurrent 
predicaments  in  the  water  to  be  able  to  notice  it 
carefully,  that  the  canon  above  had  enormously 
widened.  I  mean  that  the  upper  walls  had  receded 
through  progressive  weathering;  the  tunnel-like 
grimness  had  somewhat  softened,  and  more  light 
fell  on  me.  Fortunately  there  were  changes  in  the 
gradient  of  the  rocky  floor,  and  while  some  were  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  account,  others  introduced 
agreeable  relief.  These  latter  were  more  level 
stretches  where  the  turbulence  disappeared,  and  the 
raft  floated  evenly,  and  was  easily  kept  obedient  to 
her  helm. 

I  had  been  running  safely  enough,  though  the 
margin  of  safety,  it  must  be  said,  was  often  a  very 
narrow  one,  for  some  ten  or  twelve  hours,  and  the 
loss  of  sleep,  constant  anxiety,  the  wetting  and  the 
indifferent  sustenance  had  been  slowly  telling  on  me 
when  my  weary  eyes  detected  a  new,  perhaps  a 
crowning  danger. 

Before  me  the  walls  of  the  canon  seemed  to  close 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  369 

— they  always  did  so  in  the  manner  of  a  perspective 
coalescence — but  this  was  now  different.  There 
was  a  break  in  the  continuity  of  the  channel.  The 
stream  turned  to  the  left,  and  I  saw  a  wall  of  rock 
before  me.  At  such  a  point  a  whirlpool  effect  was 
inevitable,  and  this,  apart  from  the  danger  of  a 
wreck  on  the  rocks  in  the  rapids,  I  had  most 
dreaded. 

I  noticed  the  elbow  was  rounded  towards  the 
south,  forming  a  sort  of  pool,  and  reminding  me  of 
the  Niagara  whirlpool,  but  it  was  not  so  large,  and, 
as  the  raft  began  to  be  seized  by  a  stronger  current, 
it  was  also  evident  that  the  bed  sloped  again,  and 
that  the  stream  attained  a  dangerous  velocity. 
The  waves  spanked  and  broke  over  the  raft,  the 
distance  was  white  with  foam ;  I  was  rocked  as  in  a 
cradle,  and  I  felt  that  I  must  abandon  the  tiller, 
insert  myself  between  the  posts,  and  hold  on  to  the 
loops.  If  the  raft  escaped  or  survived  engulf ment 
I  might  then  be  saved.  The  balloons  were  intact 
and  their  attachments  unbroken.  They  were 
doing  some  service,  though  a  slight  one,  as  they 
dragged  behind  me,  restraining  my  descent. 

Another  feature  appeared  ahead  in  the  rapidly 
Hearing  vortex,  about  which  all  doubt  was  now 
removed;  I  could  see  its  powerful  rotation.  This 
new  feature  was  a  periodic  uplift  of  the  water  from 
the  pool  in  a  broad  spout  or  fountain,  ejected  ob- 
liquely and  falling  on  the  waves  beyond  the  whirl- 
pool itself.  At  first  this  outburst  alarmed  me. 
Its  discharge  seemed  so  unaccountable  and  so  vio- 
lent. A  moment  later  I  felt  it  might  mean  my 
safety. 

On  like  an  arrow  we  sped — the  raft  had  become  a 
companion — and  fearing  the  tiller  might  in  some 
way  become  entangled  or  deflected  and  in  the  tur- 
moil of  our  certain  submergence  play  some  fatal 
trick  that  would  disable  me,   I  cast  it  loose.     I 


370  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

could  see  it  swing  past  the  raft,  and  dance  madly 
on  the  combing  surges.  Then  it  was  lost  but  I 
strained  my  eyes  to  detect,  if  possible,  its  emergence 
in  the  spout  ahead.  I  thought  I  saw  it,  but  now  in 
the  clutches  of  the  ravenous  tide,  I  became  blind 
with  unmistakable  terror.  The  noise  of  the  chaotic 
water  around  me  seemed  like  a  low  roar,  mingled, 
too,  with  an  interminable  hiss,  and  in  the  gloom  of 
the  desolate  stony  chasm  the  menace  almost 
darkened  my  mind  and  made  me  unconscious. 

A  boom  struck  my  ear,  low,  definite,  smothered ; 
I  attributed  it  to  the  regurgitant  geyser  from  the 
whirlpool.  A  leap  forward,  a  choking  rattle  from 
the  logs  beneath,  and  then  a  wrenching  twist  that 
threw  my  feet  from  under  me,  and  the  water  rose 
solidly  over  my  head.  I  could  reach  the  air  by 
pulling  myself  upward  on  the  straps  about  my  arms. 
I  saw  the  balloons  tugging  desperately  and  two 
reports  like  the  bursting  of  a  bomb  immediately 
followed.  They  were  in  tatters.  Again  I  sank; 
this  time  it  seemed  like  doom.  Yet  I  was  still  con- 
scious, and  then,  as  if  an  omnipotent  arm  thrust 
from  below  raised  us,  I  felt  the  raft  pressed  upward 
against  the  welter  and  inrush,  and  then  a  titanic 
convulsion,  and  the  raft,  and  I  dangling  to  the 
posts,  were  shot  bodily  out  of  the  maelstrom, 
though  scarcely  lifted  above  the  surface;  and, 
enveloped  in  the  hill  of  water  that  accompanied  us, 
the  raft  swam  out  again  upon  the  descending 
stream,  in  a  turbulence  of  waves  that  made  me 
dizzy  with  its  confusion. 

I  hardly  realized  I  was  alive,  but  in  a  few  minutes 
every  sense  attested  its  reality.  I  felt  the  pack  on  my 
back — I  had  very  early  secured  it  there — I  heard 
that  the  creaking,  groaning  logs  were  still  intact, 
I  looked  before  me  and  saw  the  hamper  had  been 
swept  away,  I  tasted  the  cold  water  in  my  mouth. 
I  was  saturated,  it  almost  seemed,  and  I  was  faint. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  371 

perhaps  from  shock,  in  a  measure.  The  sturdy 
posts  which  had  been  my  refuge  were  unshaken, 
and  now,  straight  before  me  in  a  shouting  turmoil, 
the  waters  put  on  to  me  a  friendly  guise,  and  seemed 
just  delirious  over  my  escape.  So  quickly  does  the 
temperature  and  spirit  of  the  heart  find  its  reflec- 
tion in  inanimate  nature.  For  now,  though  I  had 
been  despoiled  I  was  safe,  and  my  gun,  my  car- 
tridges, some  food  at  least,  my  fishing  tackle,  the 
evidences  of  Krocker  Land,  many  notes,  the  com- 
pass, matches — in  a  watertight  box — and,  thanks 
to  my  forethought  a  rug  and  a  sleeping  bag  were  all 
with  me,  as  most  helpful  friends. 

The  recovery  had  been  so  unexpected  that  I  felt 
gay  as  a  child,  and  as  the  French  say,  everything 
about  me  wore  for  a  little  while  coideiir  de  rose. 
The  stream  itself,  ample  and  full,  sprawled  out  in  a 
wider  bed;  before  me  a  break  in  the  canon  walls, 
on  one  side,  indicated  some  tributary  valley  and 
affluent  and — I  was  rummaging  my  pack — here 
was  a  bottle  of  undiluted,  unwatered  wine!  I 
almost  emptied  it.  A  tortilla  and  some  strips  of 
dried  meat  completed  my  banquet.  I  was  myself 
again.  The  poles  and  paddles  lashed  to  the  posts 
were  still  there,  and  one  of  the  former  was  soon  in 
my  hands,  for  the  guidance  of  the  boat.  The  best 
I  could  do  now  would  be  to  keep  her  off  the  shores, 
turn  and  wriggle  as  she  might  in  the  middle  stream. 

My  composure  now  returned,  and  permitted  me 
to  consider  my  predicament  more  calmly.  Where 
was  I?  A  few  minutes  after  I  asked  myself  this 
question,  the  lateral  valley  opened  to  view.  It  was 
a  rough,  rocky  streambed  in  which  now  a  probably 
much  shrunken  tributary  to  the  river — Homeward 
Bound — on  which  I  was,  made  its  way  from  a  bare, 
rugged  upland.  But  here  I  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  sluggishly  ascending  vapors  and  clouds  from 
the  Perpetual  Nimbus.     I  could  not  be  mistaken. 


372  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

The  wall  of  wavering  whiteness  seemed  to  stretch 
southward.  The  confirmation  of  the  Professor's 
hypothesis  was  complete.  The  Valley  of  Rasselas 
was  an  enclosed  pit,  on  all  sides  of  which  the  ter- 
raced zones  we  had  traversed  on  the  east,  would 
certainly  be  found.  Here  on  the  west  less  de- 
veloped, compressed  and  narrower,  they  still  existed. 
Radiumopolis  at  least  was  excentrically  placed  in 
the  valley,  but  the  valley  itself  was  excentric  also. 
Then  I  would  soon  be  crossing  the  Rim,  and  appre- 
hensions of  new  difficulties  swarmed  in  my  mind. 
The  canon  I  w^as  in  cut  across  the  great  circular 
fissure  which  surrounded  Rasselas,  and  the  position 
of  the  whirlpool  perhaps  marked  the  crossing. 
Could  it  be  possible?  It  was  an  extraordinary 
geological  situation  I  was  sure,  but  its  explanation 
could  wait.  What  terrors  of  rapids,  falls,  or  cata- 
racts, or  more  whirlpools  lay  before  me?  I  looked 
ahead.  The  light  from  the  stationary  sun  had 
gone,  but  the  friendly  luminary  that  now  more 
than  replaced  it,  was  burning  in  the  sky,  and  it 
showed  my  future  course. 

To  my  delight,  on  either  side  the  canon  walls 
declined ;  indeed,  it  seemed  that  far  off  they  became 
simply  high  banks  and  nowhere  were  there  per- 
ceptible disturbances  in  the  stream  itself.  The 
great  volume  poured  its  almost  unrufifled  torrent 
over  a  very  ancient  bed,  and  the  whole  aspect  of 
the  river  assumed  a  peculiar  sedateness,  as  it  were, 
compared  with  the  rushing,  headlong  haste  it  had 
shown  above  the  whirlpool.  And  there!  On  either 
side  rose  the  snow  crowned  pinnacles  of  the  Rim! 
The  encircling  mountain  fence  of  Krocker  Land  was 
opened  here  by  a  valley,  and  in  that  valley,  deeply 
entrenched,  Homeward  Bound  was  placed.  And 
now  a  new  and  beautiful  feature  developed. 
Brooks  or  streams,  fed  perhaps  by  melting  snows  or 
ice,  leaped  into  my  river  from  the  still  high  cliffs. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  373 

I  could  count  a  dozen  or  so,  the  splash  of  the  falling 
water  breaking  the  surface  of  the  river  into  waves, 
and  the  noise  of  their  motion  and  impact  filling  the 
canon  with  a  half  musical  roar.  It  was  a  fascina- 
ting picture. 

The  river  turned,  not  abruptly,  but  swinging 
southward  in  a  long  arm  or  curve,  and  then  a  vista 
developed  that,  for  an  instant,  filled  me  with  fresh 
alarm.  On  the  left  side  the  cliffs  fell  away,  and 
their  place  was  taken  by  the  face,  it  looked  so,  of  a 
small  glacier.  I  was  at  sea  level  perhaps.  The 
wall  rose  somewhat  on  the  right,  and  intermittent 
threads  of  water  still  seamed  their  sides  with  lines 
of  light  and  whiteness,  but  to  the  left  there 
appeared  the  wide  mouth  of  a  glacial  coulisse,  and 
from  the  ice  mass  in  it,  little  bergs  floated  in  the 
now  much  retarded  and  widened  river.  The  bergs 
scared  me.  A  white  or  yellowish  turbidity  spread 
from  the  glacier,  the  contribution  of  rock-meal 
brought  by  the  river  that  issued  from  beneath  it. 

It  was  quite  possible  to  guide  my  raft  by  the 
paddle  I  had,  and,  though  the  Homeward  Bound 
maintained  considerable  current  still,  it  had  but 
little  directional  force.  In  half  an  hour  I  was 
opposite  the  glacier,  and  amongst  its  bergs.  I 
gazed  eagerly  seaward,  trusting  I  might  catch  some 
glimpse  of  the  coast  that  must  be  near  at  hand. 
But  the  view  closed  again,  there  seemed  to  be  a  con- 
traction of  the  river,  the  walls  rose  on  both  sides, 
and  now  the  river's  flow  was  but  little  more  than 
the  propulsion  caused  by  its  residual  momentum. 

The  ice  serpent  wound  upward  into  the  snow 
recesses  of  the  mountains.  Opposite  to  me  its 
riven  front  glowed  with  beryl  and  sapphire  veins; 
the  white  calves  lazily  caught  the  motion  of  the 
stream,  and  almost,  it  seemed  to  me,  resented  my 
intrusion,  so  suddenly  did  they  gather  about  me, 
either  in  derision  or  in  menace.     I  did  indeed  feel 


374  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

powerless  among  them.  Ice  cakes  flecked  the 
stream.  I  was  in  a  treacherous  company.  Anxious- 
ly I  steered  my  craft  through  them,  but  in  the 
mist  that  sprang  from  their  sides,  I  would  sometimes 
fail  to  see  them  and  an  inauspicious  bump  would 
send  me  sprawling.  I  felt  that  the  moment  of 
release  was  approaching.  Soon  the  pale,  haunted, 
Arctic  Ocean  would  hold  me.  I  felt  its  immensity 
already,  and  now  that  the  excitement  of  the 
scramble  for  liberty,  this  arrowy  voyage  down  the 
strange  and  majestic  chasm  of  a  great  new  river  of 
the  earth,  was  behind  me,  my  heart  quailed  before 
the  UNKNOWN,  that  confronted  me  with  what — 
Deliverance  or  Death? 

The  mountains  sloped  away  on  either  hand,  or 
were,  in  fact,  already  behind  me,  for  I  was  now 
floating  with  a  diminished  current  that  aided  my 
avoidance  of  the  torpidly  drifting  bergs.  I  was  in 
a  canal,  literally  cut  through  an  ancient  gigantic 
moraine,  the  vast  scourings  of  an  ancient  ice  sheet. 
It  was  not  long  delayed — my  emergence  on  the 
ice-bound  shore  of  western  Krocker  Land.  The 
banks  declined  and  slowly  disappeared,  yielding 
now  to  the  broad  fringe  of  a  coastal  plain  where  the 
river,  encountering  a  varying  resistance,  had  suc- 
cumbed to  the  vagaries  of  mere  idleness,  and  swung 
in  broad  loops  to  the  sea.  Yes — there  it  was — to 
quote  the  graphic  words  of  Nansen — "that  strange 
Arctic  hush,  and  misty  light,  over  everything, — 
that  grayish  white  light  caused  by  the  reflection 
from  the  ice  being  cast  high  into  the  air  against 
masses  of  vapor,  the  dark  land  offering  a  wonderful 
contrast." 

And  now  the  river  widened,  its  banks  receded  and 
dwindled.  To  the  north  the  high  Rim  advanced 
upon  the  sea,  and  black  promontories  rose  in 
august  severity  in  the  glare  of  day,  desolate  and 
grim,  their  skirts  fringed  with  the  white  surf  of 


ERRKSON'S  ESCAPE 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  375 

inroUing  waves.  Beyond  them  open  water  and 
then  ice  floes,  endless  prospect!  To  the  south  the 
Rim  declined  abruptly  into  a  wide  detrital  plat- 
form of  sand  and  clay  banks,  and  huge  boulders, 
and,  here  and  there,  like  white  ships,  the  icebergs 
that  had  stranded.  I  was  in  the  Kara  Sea.  Beyond 
that  dread,  compassionless  horizon  lay  Siberia — 
but  could  I  reach  it?  The  awful  chill  of  a  realiza- 
tion of  my  abject  helplessness  for  the  first  time 
overwhelmed  me.  I  was  alone  in  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
a  mere  atom  before  the  uncontrollable  forces  that  a 
whim  of  the  weather  might  suddenly  summon  forth 
on  their  wild  errands  of  destruction;  or  else  a  waif 
cast  on  a  desert  shore  to  be  left  with  pitiless  irony, 
in  the  calm  scorn  of  merciless  Nature,  to  perish. 

I'm  not  a  praying  man,  Mr.  Link,  but  somehow 
I  asked  GOD  then  to  help  me. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  Sequel 

I  worked  my  tried  and  still  most  workable  and 
useful  raft  to  the  shore,  and  stepped  from  it  to  the 
sand,  between  some  ragged  floes  of  ice — a  kind  of 
ice  foot.  The  loss  of  the  hamper  was  a  heavy  blow, 
and  to  confront  the  unknown  future  with  a  few 
morsels  of  meat  and  some  soaked  tortillas  seemed 
only  a  desperate  and  suicidal  bravado.  I  was  for  a 
while  stunned  into  a  torpor  of  inaction.  I  had 
managed  to  force  the  raft  somewhat  up  on  the 
shore,  but  I  took  the  precaution  of  further  loading 
it  with  stones.  Until  I  had  more  clearly  made  up 
my  mind  what  would  be  my  next  step,  I  would  not 
part  company  with  this  friend,  for  somehow  to  me 
then,  the  mute  bundle  of  logs  had  become  almost 
animate  with  a  human  affection. 

And  now  the  reaction  against  fatigue  and  all  the 
sleepless  hours  made  me  faint  and  weak.  I  must 
first  sleep.  I  untied  the  welcome  sleeping  bag  and 
the  rug,  and  disengaging  the  heavy  gold  belt— 
what  a  mockery  its  value  seemed  in  this  sterile 
solitude — and  the  small  hatchet  which  it  held,  I 
rolled  myself  up,  and  instantly  fell  into  uncon- 
sciousness. I  must  have  slept  almost  twenty-four 
hours,  for  the  sun  which  had  been  declining  to  the 
horizon  was  in  almost  the  same  position  when  I 
awoke.  I  was  ravenously  hungry,  but  my  courage 
had  returned,  and  at  least  I  felt  equal  to  consider- 
ing my  plans. 

376 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  377 

But  first  it  was  food.  I  made  a  fire,  warmed  or 
toasted  the  flat  pancakes  and  roasted  the  meat 
chunks,  and  these  with  water  contrived  to  satisfy 
my  hunger.  The  contents  of  the  pack  were  now 
my  sole  resource.  They  had  been  well  soaked,  but 
I  had  spread  them  on  the  white  sands,  and  in  the 
heat  of  the  sun  they  had  dried,  even  the  matches 
proving  serviceable  again.  My  gun,  which  had 
been  well  greased  (swagged)  was  uninjured,  and  the 
wax-smeared  cartridges  retained  their  murderous 
facility  of  exploding.  If  game  was  to  be  had  the 
life  in  my  body  might  yet  reasonably  expect  con- 
siderable prolongation.  And  why  not  game? 
I  recalled  our  first  encounter  when  we  were  uncere- 
moniously introduced  to  Krocker  Land — the  musk 
oxen.  But  was  I  to  become  a  prowling  Robinson 
Crusoe;  were  the  days,  the  weeks,  the  months — 
there  could  not  be  years — before  me  to  be  a  savage 
struggle  to  just  live  and  then  realize — starvation? 
At  any  rate  there  must  be  a  plan.  What  should  it 
be?  It  was  then  that  my  mind  working  feverishly 
over  a  few  projects — the  only  ones  I  could  conceive 
of,  and  all  of  them  preposterous — was  suddenly 
arrested  by  recalling  that  this  very  summer,  even 
during  this  month,  Coogan  and  Stanwix,  Phillips 
and  Spent  would  be  pushing  the  "Astrum"  through 
that  very  sea — but  farther  east — to  find  us.  On 
that  peg  of  suggestion  I  hung  my  hopes.  I  would 
work  eastward  if  I  could,  or  as  far  as  possible,  keep 
a  watchout,  and  hope  for  the  best.     What  else? 

At  first  I  thought  I  could  make  use  of  the  raft,  as 
there  was  much  open  water,  but  it  required  only  a 
little  circumspection  to  show  me  that  the  plan  was 
impracticable;  worse,  fatal.  I  must  fight  my  way 
somehow  along  the  coast  eastward,  replenishing 
my  larder  with  game,  possibly  with  fish,  not  going 
farther  than  the  inevitable  angle — there  must  be 
such  a  turning  point — where  the  land  contours  bent 


378  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

northward.  That  was  a  plan,  it  had  a  significant 
value.  Immediately  my  spirits  rose,  so  quickly 
does  the  mind  recover  its  equipoise  in  an  emergency 
when  it  is  set  about  a  rational  scheme  of  action.  It 
was  really  difficult  for  me  to  desert  the  raft.  In 
that  long  drive  through  the  canon  of  Homeward 
Bound,  the  irrepressible  instinct  of  companionship 
had  nurtured  a  curious  hallucination  of  impersona- 
tion, and  the  bundle  of  dead  logs  had  assumed  an 
indefinite  but  real  vitality.  Could  not  I  shape  or 
build  from  it  a  serviceable  sledge,  and  still,  trans- 
formed, keep  it  in  my  service?  Then  again,  could  I 
spare  the  time  to  effect  this  change?  I  had  only  my 
hatchet  for  an  implement,  and  the  thongs  and 
strands,  rope  and  cords  that  had  so  stoutly  kept  it 
intact  for  nails  and  iron  bands. 

I  abandoned  the  project,  but  before  I  started  on 
my  desperate  search,  I  hacked  enough  timber  from 
it  to  build  a  fire  and  cooked  or  roasted  my  last  meal 
over  it.  It  partook  to  me  of  the  fantastic  feeling  of 
a  valedictory. 

The  shore  along  which  I  now  made  my  way  was 
favorable  for  a  rapid  advance.  It  was  a  low  up- 
land, mainly  detrital  in  composition  with  a  beach 
apron  of  sand,  gravel,  and  mud  flats.  It  sloped 
upward  to  a  semi-piedmont  zone  of  hills,  beyond 
which  towered  the  monarchs  of  the  Rim.  The  view 
landward  was  inspiritingly  beautiful,  and  when  the 
fogs  that  rolled  inward  from  the  vast  ice-flecked 
and  iceberg-studded  sea,  were  absent  the  picture 
was  entrancing.  Rich  verdure  covered  the  upland, 
inundating,  like  a  green  flood,  the  opening  valleys, 
slopes  and  sheltered  ingles,  and  bearing  on  its 
bosom  the  Arctic  yellow  poppy  and  even  the  golden 
stars  of  the  dandelion.  Surely  in  this  land  I  might 
expect  to  find  game. 

Nor  was  I  to  look  long.  I  could  just  see,  far  off 
against  a  protruding  dazzling  granite  mound,   a 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  379 

moving  spot.  It  was  the  Ovibos  hopkinsi.  I 
almost  laughed.  I  recurred  to  our  first  encounter 
with  this  new  mountain  sheep,  when  Hopkins  and 
I  first  saw  it,  in  an  almost  identical  environment, 
when  we  landed  at  Krocker  Land.  I  watched  it 
with  the  eye  of  a  voluptuary.  Fresh  meat  would 
taste — Ah!  my  mouth  watered — I  could  not 
venture  a  simile. 

I  hastened  up  the  beautiful  Arctic  glen,  and  the 
still  unsuspecting  animals  moved  towards  me. 
Now  they  saw  me,  and  the  bulls  ranged  themselves 
in  defence,  behind  them  the  still  grazing  cows, 
startled  only  for  a  moment  into  attention.  There 
was  no  inclination  to  escape.  Only  as  I  fired  and 
the  foremost  bull  staggered  sideways  and  then 
dropped  headlong  at  my  second  shot,  did  the  herd 
shufifie  to  one  side  and  then  scamper  away.  Before 
I  had  reached  the  fallen  leader  their  shaggy  heads 
had  disappeared  over  a  fold  of  ground  that  shut  in 
an  adjoining  valley. 

I  cut  some  steaks  and  loaded  myself  with  the 
juicy  red  masses  of  flesh.  Although  Greely  and 
Peary  had  failed  to  smoke-dry  meat,  perhaps  I 
might  succeed.  I  returned  to  the  raft.  It  had 
become  a  base  of  operations.  Here  I  cooked  my 
steak  and  with  the  tasteless  tortillas  they  made  a 
feast.  But  the  momentary  thought  of  jerking  the 
meat  was  hopeless.  It  would  take  too  long  and 
then  it  might  prove  futile.  If  Coogan  was  looking 
for  me,  I  must  be  looking  for  him.  One  more  long 
sleep  and  then  I  must  "be  going."  I  felt  sad,  and 
the  glorious  dying  day  bathing  the  horizon  in  car- 
mine and  gold,  to  be  shifted  a  little  further  on,  with 
scarcely  a  change  of  color,  into  sunrise,  from  its 
very  exorbitant  splendor  oppressed  me.  I  slept, 
but  I  tossed  with  forbidding  dreams.  I  WAS 
NOT  WELL. 

The  next  day  I  started  down  the  coast,  but  I 


380  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

revisited  the  ovibos,  tore  more  meat  from  the  car- 
cass, and  with  my  pack,  a  sleeping  bag,  the  rug,  my 
gun,  and  a  bundle  of  splinters  of  wood  I  began  my 
journey.  The  heaped  up  bundles  on  my  back  bent 
me,  and  I  did  not  expect  to  make  a  record  in  walk- 
ing. I  was  carrying  my  household  on  my  back. 
But  the  favoring  character  of  the  shore  cheered  me, 
and  it  almost  seemed  that  the  peaks,  barricades  and 
buttresses  of  the  mountains  receded.  I  was  on  an 
extensive  morainal  or  alluvial  plain,  furrowed  by 
small  valleys  and  inconspicuous  ridges,  where  it 
rose  to  the  amphitheatrical  wall  of  the  Krocker 
Land  Rim.     //  it  would  last! 

The  diary  of  my  daily  progress  for  the  next  few 
days  need  not  be  rehearsed  here.  It  was  satisfac- 
tory on  the  whole,  but  the  sure  signs  of  scurvy  had 
begun  to  show  themselves,  and  some  rheumatic 
ailment  began  to  make  every  step  I  took  painful. 
I  seemed  to  see  the  end  of  it  all,  and,  anticipation 
fed  disease.  My  march  each  day  lessened;  the 
meat  had  been  consumed  in  a  few  days,  and  was 
supplemented  by  ducks,  a  seal,  and  another  ovibos, 
so  that  for  almost  ten  days  I  suffered  no  deprivation 
of  actual  nourishment,  but  my  swelling  limbs,  the 
pasty  and  aching  jaws,  the  occasional  vanishing  of 
all  strength,  and  temporary  collapses  gave  insistent 
warnings  that  I  could  not  continue.  A  dull  sense 
of  helplessness  supervened,  my  memory  wavered, 
delusions  visited  my  brain,  and  ever  and  again 
the  white  ice-packed  sea  seemed  a  snow  cov- 
ered tableland  on  which  I  might  walk  safely. 
Only  some  frantic  remnant  of  sanity  prevented 
this  suicidal  impulse.  I  was  delirious  at  times 
with  pain. 

And  the  end  of  the  propitious  coast  was  in  sight. 
I  must  have  made,  Mr.  Link,  in  those  ten  days,  by 
superhuman  exertions,  some  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  furiously  driving  on,  almost  unconscious  of 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  381 

my  motion.  And  now  a  black  rampart  of  bold 
hills,  stretched  out  like  an  arresting  arm,  crossed 
the  horizon.  Higher  and  higher  rose  the  forbidding 
cliffs,  and  I  saw  with  despair  that  they  entered  the 
sea  in  escarpments,  whose  vertical  and  gloomy 
walls  were  beaten  by  waves,  or  against  which  the 
churned  ice  was  flung  in  broken  cakes.  Beyond  the 
stern  barrier  my  flagging  strength  could  never  take 
me.  And  yet,  in  my  feebleness  I  hastened  to  reach 
it  as  an  ultimate  goal  over  which,  I  almost  thank- 
fully noted,  so  worn  was  I  in  spirit,  I  could  not  pass. 
Temperamental  decay  was  at  work  in  me,  and  I 
became  inert.     /  did  not  care. 

At_  last — oh  how  heavily  dragged  my  feet,  how 
wearingly  surged  the  pains!  I  had  come  to  the  dark 
shadow  of  the  cliffs.  It  was  a  sheer  precipice. 
My  wandering  and  scarcely  seeing  eves  dimly  noted 
its  immensity.  It  crushed  the  last  vestiges  of 
effort.  Its  undeniable  prohibition  smote  me  as  a 
physical  violence.  I  fell  headlong.  Nothing  was 
with  me  but  my  gun.  Pack,  rug,  sleeping  bag,  all 
had  been  dropped,  the  first  last,  for  to  its  unequivo- 
cal testimony  (in  the  gold  and  in  the  radium)  of  all 
I  had  seen,  all  I  had  been  through,  I  clung  with  an 
almost  demented  obstinacy.  And  now  that  was 
left  behind.  Some  recurrent  spasm  of  vitality 
returned;  I  struggled  to  my  feet,  shaking  in  an 
ague,  and  just  able  to  support  myself  against  a 
detached  splinter  of  rock,  almost  at  the  foot  of  the 
overhanging  bluff,  that  seemed  to  my  seared  sight 
to  touch  the  sky. 

What  was  it  then  that  made  me  seize  my  gun, 
and,  steadying  myself  by  some  superhuman  help — 
Yes,  Mr.  Link,  by  some  help  not  of  this  earth — 
empty  the  magazine  of  cartridges  in  a  crashing 
volley  against  that  impenetrable  rock?  Was  it 
madness,  the  last  rage  of  defeated  purpose,  or  was 
it  inspiration?    I  do  not  know,  but  as  the  sharp 


382  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

reports  multiplied,  and  to  my  racked  nerves 
sounded  in  terrific  crescendoes  I  fell  forward.  The 
sense  of  hearing  was  the  last  to  desert  me,  and 
though  my  eyes  had  closed,  even  while  the  shatter- 
ing reverberations  from  the  cliff  rang  in  them,  I 
HEARD  AN  ANSWERING  SHOT.  It  was  all 
I  heard.     I  had  swooned. 

But,  Mr.  Link,  the  ebbing  tide  of  life  returned, 
slowly  indeed  at  first,  so  slowly  that  the  friendly 
faces  around  me  seemed  only  indefinite,  leering 
masks,  before  which  I  shuddered.  Warmth  re- 
asserted its  sway,  the  warmth  of  life.  I  felt  fresh, 
cleanly  nourishment,  the  elixir  of  whisky  slipping 
down  my  throat,  and  then  a  delicious  thrill  of  com- 
fort, and  I  became  conscious,  to  find  myself  eating 
and  drinking  and  around  me  the  anxious,  staring- 
faces  of  Coogan,  Isaac  Stanwix,  Bell  Phillips,  and 
Jack  Spent. 

It  was  for  an  instant  only,  the  violence  of  my 
return  to  consciousness  weakened  me,  and  I  sank 
back  in  their  arms,  but  as  I  did,  the  overmastering 
care  that  lay  deepest  in  my  heart  struggled  into 
utterance,  through  all  my  clouded  mind,  and  I 
gasped,  pointing  to  the  path  over  which  I  had  come, 
"The  pack — the  pack." 

It  was  not  many  hours  later  that  I  again  awoke, 
in  the  luxurious  cabin  of  the  "Astrum,"  pillowed  in 
an  easy  chair,  and  watching  with  grateful  eyes  the 
ministering  mercies  of  my  friends.  Very  gradually 
my  sapped  strength  and  health  were  renewed,  but 
indeed  it  sometimes  occurs  to  me  that  I  shall  never 
be  quite  all  I  once  was.  The  multiplied  strains, 
repeated,  contrasted,  with  the  unapparent  but  real 
nervous  shocks  of  excitement  suffered  in  the  ordeals 
of  entering  Krocker  Land,  and  those  less  obviously 
but  most  certainly  disordering  experiences  in 
Radiumopolis,  with  the  whole  effect  of  the 
monstrous  unreality  of  it  all,  have  unhinged  my 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  383 

system.  And  then — the  agony  of  my  last  humiHa- 
tion  in  this  city. 

The  story  told  by  Coogan  was  a  most  simple  one. 
It  corroborated  my  expectations  and  of  course 
exactly  justified  my  conduct.  The  "Astrum" 
according  to  orders  left  Point  Barrow,  and  steamed 
into  the  ice,  which  proved  to  be  unusually  negoti- 
able, looking  for  us.  They  failed  to  discover  any 
signs  of  us  on  the  ice  pack,  but  in  an  adventure- 
some trip  northward,  invited  to  the  undertaking  by 
the  open  water,  they  made  a  landfall,  and  found 
there  the  "Pluto,''  our  naphtha  launch.  It  was  on 
almost  exactly  the  place  of  our  landing  from  the 
storm.  They  concluded  we  had  skirted  the  new 
land,  reconnoitering  it  edgewise,  as  it  were,  or  at 
any  rate  their  first  and  prudent  course  was  to  do  so. 
They  had  managed  to  creep  on  safely  through  broad 
leads  between  the  shore  ice  and  the  big  floes,  until 
they  came  to  the  massif,  that,  like  an  out-thrust 
arm  with  clenched  fist,  cut  the  land  in  two.  They 
had  rather  gingerly  picked  their  way  through  the 
ice  around  the  frowning  headlands  when  my  shots 
were  heard.  The  rest  is  the  usual  story — the 
story  I  have  hinted  at — and  my  pack  was  safe.  It 
lay  at  my  feet. 

Now  to  tell  the  truth  I  was  rather  reticent  with 
Coogan  and  the  others  as  to  my  own  adventure.  I 
did  not  wish  then  to  tell  them  everything  or  even 
much.  The  whole  marvel  must  be  elsewhere  and 
differently  unfolded.  It  must  be  given  to  the 
world  through  science,  and  the  national  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  must  be  empaneled  for 
the  rescue  of  my  companions.  I  desired  the 
audience  of  a  nation,  and  the  ears  of  the  world. 
And  now — deplorable  reversion — I  am  telling  it 
to  you  alone.  I  hid  much  or  all,  admitted  that  the 
new  continent  was  large,  that  we  had  entered  it, 
that  the  Professor  and  Hopkins  were  pursuing  in- 


384  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

vestigatlons  there,  and  that  I  must  return  in  time 
with  a  larger  expedition.  They  seemed  to  under- 
stand my  reticence — or  was  it  commiseration? 
— and  good-naturedly  left  me  alone.  About  two 
months  later  we  arrived  safely  in  San  Francisco. 

("Mr.  Link" — the  voice  of  the  speaker  perceptibly 
lowered,  I  might  say  perceptibly  trembled — "it  has 
been  a  pleasure  to  rehearse  this  wonderful  experi- 
ence, pleasant  to  recall  my  two  friends  still  exiled 
in  that  mysterious  continent,  pleasant  to  believe 
that  through  the  instrumentality  of  your  publica- 
tion, they  may  be  extricated  from  their  bewildering 
embarrassments,  but — it  is  not  pleasant  to  finish 
my  story." 

Mr.  Erickson  was  silent  for  a  few  moments,  as  if 
he  half  expected  me  to  release  him  from  the  implied 
obligation  of  explaining  more  completely  the  origins 
of  the  predicament  in  which  we  found  him.  But  I 
was  relentlessly  silent,  and  after  a  glance  at  my 
imperturbable  and  fixed  gaze,  he  turned  his  head 
aside  and  resumed  the  "last  measure  of  his  tale.") 

I  was  not  long  in  finding  my  former  acquaintance 
to  whom  now  instinctively,  in  my  dearth  of  com- 
panionship, I  had  recourse  for  advice,  and  sensibly 
for  succor — Carlos  Huerta.  Nothing  could  exceed 
the  boisterous  ardor  of  his  welcome.  He  was  over- 
joyed and  appeared  almost  rapturous  in  his  demon- 
strations of  astonishment  and  delight  at  seeing  me. 
Of  course  I  succumbed  all  too  easily  to  the  caresses 
of  his  friendship — and  then  (the  speaker  paused 
again  and  a  flood  of  carmine  filling  his  cheeks  and 
glowing  warmly  even  in  his  temples,  revealed  his 
confusion),  he  introduced  me  to  the  most  beautiful 
woman  I  have  ever  seen  in  all  my  life,  Angelica 
Sigurda  Tabasco,  whose  intimate,  Diaz  Ilario 
Aguadiente,  was  a  gentleman  of  marvelous  cordial- 
ity. I  was  literally  taken  to  their  hearts.  You 
see,  sir,  plainly  my  state  of  defencelessness  against 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  385 

these  scheming  reprobates — cunning  parasites  of 
fortune — whose  suave  geniality  disarmed  suspicion, 
and  whose  enthusiastic  sympathy,  not  unintelHgent 
either,  warmed  my  weary  heart  and  opened  my  lips. 

They  wormed  a  good  deal  out  of  me,  they  saw  the 
gold — not  the  buckle — the  radium,  and  they  actually 
listened  to  the  recital  of  our  visit  to  the  Gold 
Makers.  Then  they  laid  their  plans.  I  was  to  be 
coaxed  to  New  York — how  many  specious  induce- 
ments could  be  given  for  me  to  go  there.  The  season 
was  not  too  late  for  any  relief  expedition,  and  at 
New  York  all  the  avenues  of  approach  to  capital 
could  be  reached.  I  was  to  give  a  public  lecture, 
the  best  social  and  scientific  auspices  would  protect 
it,  and  from  New  York  the  wave  of  interest  would 
radiate  to  all  the  capitals  of  the  world.  It  seemed 
so  simple,  it  was  so  inviting,  and  then  it  was  urged 
with  such  cordial  plausibility  and  fervor,  and  all 
accompanied  by  that  personal  suasion  of  admira- 
tion, and  the  artifices  of  encouragement  in  sur- 
roundings that  were  sumptuous  and  enthralling. 
I  was  completely  taken  in. 

I  came  on  to  New  York  with  Huerta,  who 
lavished  every  kindness  on  me,  and  whose  incessant 
questioning  as  to  the  process  of  gold  transmutation 
which  I  had  seen  easily  assumed  the  guise  of  a 
natural  curiosity.  The  merest  accident  prevented 
my  bringing  on  to  New  York  the  precious  pack  in 
which  the  gold  souvenirs,  the  gold  buckle,  and  the 
radium  mineral  masses  were  preserved.  The  trio — 
themselves  deceived  by  their  gloating  cupidity — 
had  urged  the  necessity  of  protecting  this  property 
by  placing  it  in  a  safety-deposit  vault,  and  when 
the  day  arrived  for  Huerta  and  me  to  leave  San 
Francisco,  at  the  last  moment,  and  just  as  I 
expected  to  call  at  the  safe  deposit  company  to 
claim  and  remove  my  property,  I  was  seized  with  a 
chill  that  rapidly  increased  into  a  convulsive  fit, 


386  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

followed  by  a  temporary  coma.  I  was  alone  in  the 
room  of  my  hotel  and  the  seizure  was  so  sudden 
that  I  was  unable  to  summon  assistance.  When 
it  had  passed,  much  time  had  been  lost,  and 
actually  fearing  to  reclaim  the  pack  in  my  then 
physical  condition  I  concluded  to  leave  it,  and  have 
it  forwarded  later  upon  a  written  order. 

This  was  quite  feasible,  and  in  some  respects,  so 
I  thought  at  the  moment,  safer  and  more  preferable, 
as  I  had  taken  the  unusual  precaution  of  enclosing 
the  pack  in  a  strong  metal  box. 

When  on  the  train  I  explained  to  Huerta  my 
mishap  he  at  first  changed  his  demeanor,  frowned 
and  fidgeted  and  nettled  me  by  his  half  suppressed 
acerbity.  I  think  then  I  might  have  been  saved, 
had  his  suspicious  temper  prolonged  itself.  But 
it  was  gone  almost  instantly,  and  his  customary 
deceptive  solicitude  and  optimistic  confidence 
replaced  it  and  my  doubts  vanished.  It  was  also 
supposed  by  me  that  Angelica  and  Diaz  would 
remain  some  time  longer  in  San  Francisco,  and 
when  I  encountered  them  in  east  Fifty-eighth  Street 
I  was  stupified,  though  of  course,  by  that  time,  I 
had  no  reason  to  feel  any  surprise  over  any  develop- 
ment in  my  relations  with  these  monsters. 

In  New  York  Huerta  conducted  me  to  an  eastside 
boarding  house.  It  is  incredible  how  I  permitted 
myself  to  follow  him.  Even  while  suspicion  and 
distrust  biegan  to  assail  me  I  accompanied  him  into 
a  common  sort  of  house,  apparently  the  resort  of 
men  only,  and  rather  hard  looking  characters  at 
that,  and  yet  with  these  pregnant  signs  of  coming 
mischief,  I  kept  alongside  of  this  inhuman  brute, 
sat  with  him  in  a  duskily  lighted  room  at  a  shabby 
table,  served  by  some  slatternly  woman  waiters, 
under  surroundings  hopelessly  sordid  and  dull.  I 
was  not  myself,  Mr.  Link;  the  stamina  of  resistance 
was  extirpated  in  me,  and  I  was  led  like  a  child. 
The  denouement  followed  quickly. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  387 

That  very  night  or  evening  I  went  to  my  room  or 
what  I  supposed  was  my  room,  only  to  discover  it 
was  a  small  bathroom,  provided  with  a  sleeping 
cot.  I  had  preceded  Huerta,  who  pointed  to  the 
door.  As  I  opened  it  my  surprise  caused  me  to 
retreat,  but  Huerta  pushed  me  in,  and  instantly  he 
was  joined  by  two  other  men  from  a  room  near  at 
hand,  and  the  door  was  locked.  Of  course,  as  by  a 
flash  of  light,  an  unexpected  danger  was  revealed. 
I  saw  that  I  was  trapped. 

There  happened  to  be  one  chair  in  the  place. 
Huerta,  whose  whole  demeanor  now  altered, 
motioned  toward  it  with  a  scowl  and  the  other  men 
stepped  forward.  Each  of  them  carried  a  short 
leaden  pipe.  Mr.  Link,  I  am  not  a  timid  man — 
what  I  have  gone  through  shows  that — but  I  was 
intimidated  then.  I  glanced  around  me;  there 
was  not  a  window  in  the  room ;  it  was  lighted  by  a 
smoking  gas  jet. 

"Well,"  I  said,  collecting  my  thoughts  to  meet 
the  situation,  "I  guess  you  have  me.  What  is  it? 
What  do  you  want?" 

Huerta's  agreeable  style  was  resumed.  "Why 
just  this,  Mr.  Erickson.  You  have  got  a  sort  of 
knowledge  which  is  rather  valuable,  and  we  want 
to  make  an  agreement  with  you;  you  might  call  it 
a  sort  of  combine.  You  have  got  hold  of  some  very 
interesting  information.  Let's  pool  it  and  work  it 
for  our  common  benefit." 

"What  information,"  I  asked  and  leaped  to  my 
feet,  infuriated  at  the  smiling,  insulting  visage  that 
he  wore  as  an  answer  to  my  question. 

"Oh!  Calm  yourself.  These  gentlemen  and 
myself  are  not  icebergs,  but  perhaps  we  can  hit  as 
hard.  The  thing  is  simple  enough.  Sign  this 
paper." 

He  held  out  a  folded  sheet  which  I  at  once  recog- 
nized as  having  been  torn  from  a  writing  pad  in  the 


388  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

Pullman  in  which  we  had  come  to  New  York.  It 
was  an  order  on  the  safe  deposit  company  in  San 
Francisco  to  forward  to  him,  Carlos  Huerta,  my 
pack,  the  satchel  of  gold  and  radium.  Then 
followed  his  address,  which  was  —  east  Fifty-eighth 
Street,  the  very  house  in  which  you  found  me, 
Mr.  Link. 

I  threw  the  paper  in  his  face.  It  was  maladroit. 
His  temper — and  he  had  the  passion  of  a  fiend — 
broke  loose  and  he  struck  me.  I  jumped  at  him, 
and  hurled  the  chair  straight  at  his  head,  but  it  was 
intercepted,  and,  in  a  trice,  the  three  rushed  at  me 
and  held  me,  kicking,  squirming,  and  shouting,  on 
the  narrow  bed.  No  help  came;  I  was  bound  and 
was  knocked  almost  senseless. 

(It  was  some  time  before  Erickson  could  continue; 
he  was  in  a  pitiful  agitation,  walking  over  and 
across  the  room  with  a  most  distressful  expres- 
sion on  his  face.  At  length  he  pulled  himself 
together  and  resumed  his  story.) 

Well,  they  kept  me  in  that  room  some  five  days. 
I  was  fed  and  attended  by  my  captors — I  think  now 
partially  drugged  by  them.  But  my  will  remained 
stubborn.  I  had  faced  death  before,  I  could  face 
it  now,  though  it  seemed  more  terrifying  in  this 
wretched  shape  than  meeting  it  undisguised 
beneath  the  open  skies.  This  obstinacy  drove 
Huerta  frantic.  I  calculated  that  it  would  lead  to 
an  outbreak  or  issue  soon.     It  did. 

The  sixth  night  the  room  was  entered  by  the 
three  men  to  whom,  now  weakened,  dazed,  nervous 
with  disgust,  I  could  offer  no  resistance.  I  was 
really  sick.  They  tied  my  arms  and  legs  and 
gagged  my  mouth,  and  put  me  in  a  sack.  It  was 
then,  before  they  completed  their  task,  that  I 
managed  to  secrete  a  few  scribbled  words  on  a  slip 
of  paper,  which  I  had  kept  by  me,  and  later  suc- 
ceeded in  forcing  through  an  aperture  in  the  bag. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  389 

This  paper  your  boy  Riddles  found.  I  was  whisked 
off  in  an  automobile,  unloaded  like  a  sack  of 
potatoes  at  the  door  of  —  east  Fifty-eighth  Street, 
and  taken  to  the  attic  floor  where  you  and  the 
police  found  me. 

Before  you  came  I  was  confronted  with  Angelica 
and  Diaz,  and  the  proposition  was  very  attractively 
made  that  nothing  should  be  said  in  any  public  way 
about  Krocker  Land,  but  that  my  gold  specimen 
should  be  sold  as  bullion,  and  that  we  four  should 
form  a  transmutation  plant  with  the  radium  that 
I  had  brought  back.  Accede  to  this,  they  ex- 
plained (they  were  somehow  convinced  that  I  was 
withholding  the  secret  technique  I  had  learned  of 
the  process  of  transmutation),  and  combine  with 
them,  and  my  life  and  freedom  would  be  assured. 

I  saw  through  the  ruse,  feeble  as  I  had  mentally 
become.  My  life,  at  least  its  short  continuance, 
depended  upon  my  resisting  their  demands.  Once 
granted,  the  paper  signed,  what  I  knew  of  the 
transmutation  revealed — and  I  now  sedulously 
encouraged  their  belief  in  a  more  or  less  recondite 
process  which  demanded  physical  apparatus  and 
silver  bullion — and  my  life  would  be  but  a  flash  in 
the  pan — out — like  that.  (And  Erickson  snapped 
his  fingers.)  If  I  could  delay  the  upshot — inevit- 
able in  any  case  unless  relief  came — until  some 
lucky  chance  brought  me  deliverance  and  I  hoped 
the  paper  scribble  would — I  might  yet  survive. 

Therefore  I  pleaded,  I  argued,  I  promised  every- 
thing if  they  would  liberate  me,  and  then  upon 
their  savage  refusal,  I  grew  dogged  and  silent.  It 
was  then  or  a  little  afterwards  that  the  conversa- 
tion occurred  that  you  and  the  police  overheard 
and  then,  when  these  ruthless,  bloodless  imps  of 
Hell  were  about  to  inflict  their  brutal  torture — the 
door  was  burst  open,  and  all  was  over. 


390  THE  NEW  NORTHLAND 

I  recall  distinctly  the  evening  on  which  Mr. 
Erickson  concluded  his  stupendous  narrative.  It 
had  been  agreed  that,  apart  from  some  brief  an- 
nouncements before  the  various  proper  scientific 
bodies  of  the  world,  no  details  should  precede  the 
publication  in  book  form  of  Erickson's  personal 
account  and  the  serial  report  in  the  Truth  Getter. 
All  this  is  now  a  part  of  history,  and  a  part  which 
fairly  challenges  comparison  with  those  thunder- 
struck days  when  Columbus  and  Cabot,  Vespucius, 
Hudson,  and  Verrazani  rolled  up  the  curtain  that 
hid  the  western  world. 

I  say  I  remember  the  evening.  It  was  a  sombre 
dying  twilight  in  March.  The  servant  had  just  lit 
the  lamp  of  the  library,  and  a  hoarse  wind  rose 
petulantly  outside,  like  the  distant  drone  of  a  fog 
whistle.  A  vision  stood  at  the  door.  It  was  my 
daughter,  Sibyl.  She  was  resplendent.  I  noticed 
Erickson's  awed  rapture.  She  held  an  evening 
paper  in  her  hand.  Her  voice  was  as  beautiful  as 
her  person.     Its  music  conveyed  this  message: 

"Father,  this  paper  has  a  telegram  from  St. 
John's,  Newfoundland,  saying  that  Donald 
McMillan  has  reached  Krocker  Land,  and  below  it 
is  one  from  Point  Barrow,  saying  Stefansson  has 
reached  Krocker  Land.  Isn't  that  a  surprising 
coincidence?" 

Erickson  sprang  toward  her,  and  she  handed  him 
the  paper;  his  face  in  the  red  reflection  from  the 
hearth  looked  sallow.     He  read  the  lines. 

"My  God,  it's  true —  Then  Hopkins  and  the 
Professor  are  saved." 

"But,"  I  interjected  with  proper  journalistic 
trepidation,  "where  do  we  come  in,  Mr.  Erickson?" 

He  gazed  at  me  as  if  petrified: 

"RUSH  THE  COPY." 

It  was  rushed,  and  before  McMillan  or  Stefansson 
were  again  heard  from,  Erickson's  story  was  the 
property  of  the  world. 


THE  NEW  NORTHLAND  391 

EDITORIAL  NOTE 

There  are  many  things  in  the  foregoing  pages 
that  perhaps  awaken  incredulity.  There  are 
some  inconsistencies  of  statement.  There  seems 
to  be  discoverable  a  feeble  effort  at  invention.  The 
reader  will  almost  instantly,  upon  reading  the  last 
word  of  it — and  surely  he  can  afford  to  skip  none — 
feel  that  perhaps  a  little  enlightened  cross  examina- 
tion would  have  confused  a  veracious  chronicler. 
I  am  inclined  to  suppose  that  almost  mechanically 
he  might  murmur  to  himself,  "Those  balloons, 
dubious — those  tubes,  impossible — the  Crocodilo- 
Python,  preposterous — the  little  Hebrews,  madness 
— the  radium  chasm,  a  nightmare — transmutation, 
poppy-cock — the  Perpetual  Nimbus,  deliberate  lie,'" 
and  so  on,  until  affected  by  his  own  overheated 
thoughts  and  a  partially  justifiable  resentment  at 
having  been  made  the  victim  of  a  fabrication,  which 
has  consumed  some  ten  hours  of  his  time,  and 
would  have,  assuming  its  reality,  supplied  him  with 
the  most  perdurable  reasons  for  rejoicing  that  his 
lot  was  cast  at  the  beginning  of  this  twentieth 
century,  he  indulges  in  some  specific  appeals, 
more  majorum,  to  the  demon  of  darkness  to  make 
away  with  its  editor. 

Gentle — pardon  the  inappropriateness  of  the 
word,  but  to  say  Irate  might  only  increase  my  con- 
demnation— Reader — wait.  We  shall  all  see. 
VilhjalmarStefanssonand  Donald  McMillan  are  on 
the  very  verge  of  this  new  continent. 

THEY  WILL  TELL  US. 

"Not  so  fast,  Mr.  Editor" — It  is  the  voice  of  the 
wife  of  the  Gentle  Reader — "Not  so  fast!  What 
connection  had  Spruce  Hopkins  with  either 
Angelica  or  Diaz?  You  remember  the  fiat  silver 
medal  that  Hopkins  flung  into  the  air  on  Krocker 
Land  Rim,  and  which  was  the  last  token  Erickson 
received  from  the  Yankee?" 

Ah — Madame,  that  is  another  story. 


